Cranford Audiobook By Elizabeth Gaskell cover art

Cranford

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Cranford

By: Elizabeth Gaskell
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell's best-known work, is a humorous account of a nineteenth-century English village dominated by a group of genteel but modestly circumstanced women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister, Miss Matty. But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reappearance of long-lost relatives.

By eschewing the conventional marriage plot with its nubile heroines and focusing instead on a group of middle-aged and elderly spinsters, Gaskell does something highly unusual within the novel genre. Through her masterful management of the novel's tone, she underscores the value and dignity of single women's lives even as she causes us to laugh at her characters' foibles. Charles Dickens was the first of many readers to extol its wit and charm, and it has consistently been Gaskell's most popular work.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Witty
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This is a lovely, cozy story and the narrator did a wonderful job. Definitely recommend.

Delightful

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A warm and funny book about a small town in Victorian England peopled with people we all know. Delightful!!

A warm and funny book

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I enjoyed other Elizabeth Gaskell novels Wives and Daughters, North and South and Ruth. But this is not my cup of tea, I appreciate a novel without the marriage plot but it makes me sad that for so many single women their lives were so limited. I am encouraged that society has broadened the opportunities for women and it was worth the read as a Gaskell fan.

A Classic but…

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Mrs Gaskell will keep you going until it's time to reread. Charming, funny, tragic. Terrific narrator.

when you've run out of Austen

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love this gem. a delightful, funny, heart warming, and tearful story about characters you come to care about. Elizabeth Gaskill's diamond.

delightful

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I think this is the kind of book that is best read and not heard. I had a hard time following it. -well at least for me. I'm this way with Jane Austen and Dickens. Unless I already know the story, it's hard to understand the scene.

Wat 😶

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I stopped ‘listening’ half way through. The story is delightful and I’m contemplating paying for the version narrated by the actress Prunella Scales (sample is terrific). This version didn’t hold my attention. My mind kept drifting away. When I tried harder to concentrate on it I just got bored. It’s not bad. Just not for me.

Struggled to engage with narration

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Each chapter tells its story and expands the comforts of the community. Life is good in Cranford.

Enjoyable, low-key, but enjoyable

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I didn’t have any issues with the narration. I thought the entire thing was just as it should be. I’m sure a polished actor would make it that much better but as it stands, it’s a perfectly fine piece.

Very good narrator

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I was in a hurry to get into this book as I was in a deadline for bookgroup... if I'd understood it was originally written as vignettes for a serial column in a magazine I might not have been as confused. Having now discussed it, I will enjoy it much more the second time ;)

Read the reviews first! ;)

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