Product Description

Based on three Elizabeth Gaskell novels, "The Cranford Chronicles" follows the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford, a small Cheshire market town, during one extraordinary year. In this witty and poignant story the railway is pushing its way relentlessly towards the town from Manchester, bringing fears of migrant workers and the breakdown of law and order. The arrival of handsome young Doctor Harrison causes yet further agitation not just because of his revolutionary methods but also because of his effect on the hearts of the ladies. Meanwhile Miss Matty Jenkyns nurses her own broken heart after she was forced to give up the man she loved when she was a young girl.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #841 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Indepentent
'affectionately observed portrayal of an 1840s market town, handsomely re-issued as part of the Vintage Classics series'

Sunday Herald
'Cranford has fun exposing the snobbish codes of the era's middle classes without condemning the characters'

About the Author
Elizabeth Gaskell was born on 29 September 1810 in London. She was brought up in Knutsford, Cheshire by her aunt after her mother died when she was two years old. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, who was a Unitarian minister like her father. After their marriage they lived in Manchester with their children. Elizabeth Gaskell published her first novel, Mary Barton, in 1848 to great success. She went on to publish much of her work in Charles Dickens's magazines, Household Words and All the Year Round. Along with short stories and a biography of Charlotte Bront #235;, she published five more novels including North and South (1855) and Wives and Daughters (1866). Wives and Daughters is unfinished as Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly of heart failure on 12 November 1865.

Customer Reviews

Even better than the DVD!!!!
After watching the BBC series on TV, I had to get the books, and this edition contains all of the books used to make the series. Although there are some slight differences, for example the characters from the 3 stories don't intermingle as they do in the film, I really really enjoyed it, and having watched the DVD again, I think the books are equally good if not better because there are parts that aren't in the dvd - for example a sub-story about the french revolution told by Lady Ludlow. The book itself (as in the paper) is also good quality! You probably won't be disappointed!!! :-)

Very cosy and charm
I enjoyed a lot this novel. It is so cosy and warm and very well depicted the society. I would recommended it to all my friends, also the DVD from BBC