She is thrilled when her widowed but titled sister-in-law, Lady Glenmire, comes to stay. The imperious Miss Jenkyns determines matters of protocol after her death the task falls to Mrs Jamieson. Travel allows brings other visitors to Cranford including the magician Signor Brunoni, actually a soldier called Samuel Brown, Lady Glenmire, and finally a brother returning from India.Ĭranford ladies have their routines and traditions, and do not like them to be upset. The railway brought closer connection to the nearest city: Drumble, standing in for Manchester, which was expanding fast, and bringing new practices such as the joint stock bank which holds Miss Matty’s meagre fortune. The changes brought from outside the town include the railway, which sadly claims a victim in an early episode: Captain Brown saved a child which had wandered on to the track but was himself crushed by the engine. The manner in which Cranford was created determined its structure and its lack of narrative drive.Ĭhange is a big theme of Cranford. The whole was gathered together and published in 1853 as a novel. Dickens rightly saw the potential in this first piece and encouraged Mrs Gaskell to write more.Ī dozen more sections followed at irregular intervals in subsequent editions of Household Words. Our Society at Cranford, as it was called, painted a quaint picture of a mainly female population, genteel but not wealthy, proud of its conservatism, and hostile to outsiders and change. The novel began its life as a piece in Household Words, edited by Charles Dickens in 1851.
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