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Digital Audiobook
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

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Cranford

Publisher
Craig Black
Publish Date
1 January 2006
Run Time
6 hours 52 minutes
Format
Audiobook
$13.95

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What to expect

Cranford is Elizabeth Gaskell’s gently comic picture of life and manners in an English country village during the 1830s. It describes the small adventures in the lives of two middle-aged sisters in reduced circumstances, Matilda and Deborah Jenkyns, who do their best to maintain their standards of propriety, decency, and kindness. At the center of the novel is Miss Matty, whose warm heart and tender ways compel affection and regard from everyone around her. Also revealed are the foibles and attributes of the pompous Mrs. Jamieson and her awesome butler, the genial Captain Brown, the loyal housemaid Martha, and others.

Using an intimate, gossipy voice that never turns sentimental, Gaskell skillfully conveys the old-fashioned habits, subtle class distinctions, and genteel poverty of the townspeople. Cranford is one of the author’s best-loved works.

Critics Review

  • “Bathed in a poignant, dreamlike mood found nowhere else in fiction.”

    Guardian

  • “The most perfect of Mrs. Gaskell’s creations.”

    Saturday Review

  • “Reader Nadia May lends an authentic air to the women’s complaints about bonnets and servants, adding a somber note when the villagers experience death and robbery.”

    AudioFile

User Reviews

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Details

Author
Elizabeth Gaskell
Narrator
Wanda McCaddon
Duration
6 hours 52 minutes
Release Date
1 January 2006
ISBN
9781481561839
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Craig Black
Genre
Classic fiction, Fiction: general and literary, Historical fiction, Fiction: general and literary

Synopsis

Cranford is Elizabeth Gaskell’s gently comic picture of life and manners in an English country village during the 1830s. It describes the small adventures in the lives of two middle-aged sisters in reduced circumstances, Matilda and Deborah Jenkyns, who do their best to maintain their standards of propriety, decency, and kindness. At the center of the novel is Miss Matty, whose warm heart and tender ways compel affection and regard from everyone around her. Also revealed are the foibles and attributes of the pompous Mrs. Jamieson and her awesome butler, the genial Captain Brown, the loyal housemaid Martha, and others.Using an intimate, gossipy voice that never turns sentimental, Gaskell skillfully conveys the old-fashioned habits, subtle class distinctions, and genteel poverty of the townspeople. Cranford is one of the author’s best-loved works.

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