(in the Brussels metro, Andre experimenting with his new camera)
Part 1/2 of the Cranford Read-Along (Chapters I to XVIII)
Without melodrama, without even an actual plot, Cranford develops at the gentle pace you’d expect from an early-Victorian small town. Elizabeth Gaskell is the Queen of Domestic Life and from page 1 the reader is immediately involved in the small pains and pleasures of a group of middle-aged genteel women. With just a few anecdotes, she is able to build distinct individuals and I was often left with the vague impression I actually knew someone who, as Miss Matty and her candles, is obsessed about saving something or other, or who would defend his/hers favourite author as devotedly as Miss Jenkins’ did her Dr. Jenkyns (the dialogue in that scene is priceless).
I also found the narrator delightful. She’s the outsider looking in and has just the right amount of clever irony, like asking the readers if they would find some of Cranford’s eccentricities in London. My favorite:
The greatest event was, that Miss Jenkyns had purchased a new carpet for the drawing-room. Oh, the busy work Miss Matty and I had in chasing the sunbeams, as they fell in an afternoon right down on this carpet through the blindless window! (…) We were very busy, too, one whole morning, before Miss Jenkyns gave her party, in following her directions, and in cutting out and stitching together pieces of newspaper so as to form little paths to every chair set for the expected visitors, lest their shoes might dirty or defile the purity of the carpet. Do you make paper paths for every guest to walk upon in London?
What a great image, I’m sorry they didn’t use that in the series!
Cranford is my fourth Gaskell after North & South, Wives & Daughters and The Life of Charlotte Bronte. In comparison it’s much lighter and I can easily imagine Gaskell having fun writing it. She avoided the major social convulsions and deep moral dilemmas of the others, but her recurrent theme of tradition vs. progress is still very much present in Cranford. Change in this village does not come through the arrival of rail line or a factory, but is more subtle. Almost every chapter is about how these women gently adapt to the developments around them, especially after the death of Miss Jenkins, the village’s bastion of tradition. Sucking oranges in company, burning old letters (why didn’t the narrator offer to take care of them?!) had the scale of revolutions in the quite life of Miss Matty.
Don’t you sometimes wish that a separate story would be written about another book’s secondary characters? I get that a lot – the one that comes to mind immediately is Faramir from Lord of the Rings (one of my biggest literary crushes!). I got that same feeling about “Mr. Thomas Holbrook, yeoman”, my favourite character in the first half of the book. I would have liked to know more about his daily life, what he reads, his relationship with tenants and servants, but most of all, I’d have liked to see Paris through his eyes. I was very sorry to see him go so soon.
These are my 2-euro cents about the first 8 chapters. Looking forward to see what the other Read-Along participants thought!
7 comments
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June 15, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Melissa
This read-along is my first experience with Gaskell. I was surprised by how simple the plot was, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s made me want to read North & South.
June 15, 2010 at 3:53 pm
cbjames
I count myself as a big fan of Cranford, though it’s been a while since I read it. We tried watching the series, but found the “plots” uninteresting. The parts of Cranford that make it so wonderful at the plotless bits, like the one you describe. When the series did those it was lots of fun. You can tell that all of those actresses were in their element having a good time.
But as soon as the series moved on to the “plot” sections, which I understand are based on other Gaskell works set in the town of Cranford, we began to lose interest.
It would have been so much more fun to watch them all make pathways across the new carpet out of newspaper.
June 15, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Allie
Those little moments make it. I also fell in love with the book debate near the beginning, since I had to read both of the authors they were arguing about in college. It just adds a whole other layer of depth to the novel.
I also love how Gaskell gives a lot of depth to the characters who aren’t the true focus, like Miss Matty’s brother. He was so well developed and he wasn’t even “there.”
I’m looking forward to reading the rest! And I am definitely going to read more Gaskell in the future!
June 15, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Jessica
I also enjoyed the first 8 chapters and am enjoying the gentleness and the gossip.
June 16, 2010 at 12:22 am
Susan
Reading Cranford has really inspired me to read Gaskell’s other works. Cranford was my first. I loved the carpet scene, as well!
June 16, 2010 at 1:35 am
Cat
I loved the carpet episode too and its definitely these wonderful ordinary observations that make the book such a pleasure to read. It’s my first experience of EG and I know I’ll go on and read more.
Haven’t seen the series and have been planning to wait until I’ve finished the book but I now feel I might be disappointed if little gems like the carpet are not included.
June 16, 2010 at 3:16 am
Lindsey Sparks
Good point about the secondary characters! Many of them are wonderful, and I keep getting sad about leaving them behind. Hmm. That’s a little disappointing about the series. I’ll probably still watch it, but I may put a little space between the book and watching it though.