The cover page is adapted from Hollingbourne, Kent, a painting completed in 1906 by Helen Allingham. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Allinghamwww.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
Cranford
Chapters (16)
- I: Our Society 0:00
- II: The Captain 24:38
- III: A Love Affair of Long Ago 59:43
- IV: A Visit to an Old Bachelor 1:21:03
- V: Old Letters 1:47:52
- VI: Poor Peter 2:13:21
- VII: Visiting 2:43:00
- VIII: “Your Ladyship” 3:07:52
- IX: Signor Brunoni 3:39:41
- X: The Panic 4:03:12
- XI: Samuel Brown 4:36:34
- XII: Engaged to Be Married 5:04:33
- XIII: Stopped Payment 5:23:57
- XIV: Friends in Need 5:50:46
- XV: A Happy Return 6:32:57
- XVI: Peace to Cranford 7:02:58
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Cranford was first serialized in Charles Dickens’ magazine Household Words between 1851 and 1853. The structureless nature of the stories, and the fact that Gaskell was busy writing her novel Ruth at the time the Cranford shorts were being published, suggests that she didn’t initially plan for Cranford to be a cohesive novel.
The short vignettes follow the activities of the society in the fictional small English country town of Cranford. Gaskell drew from her own childhood in Knutsford to imbue her settings and characters with a nostalgic quality in a time when the societies and styles portrayed were already going out of fashion.
Though not especially popular at the time of publication, Cranford has since gained an immense following, including at least three television adaptations.