Cranford was a huge disappointment when I first read it some ten years ago.
I was expecting the same hard hitting social commentary found in North and South. Instead, I found some rambling stories about a bunch of elderly female residents who seemed to spend their entire life gossiping, eating and worrying about social etiquette and propriety. It felt skimpy and insubstantial, not really a novel so much as a series of episodes.
Second time around was an entirely different experience. I don’t know whether that was because I had a physical book in my hand versus the e-version for my first read. Or that I was in a different mood and more receptive to the subtleties of the social commentary. Whatever the reason, I fell in love with this book on my second encounter.
Cranford is a collection of interwoven, episodic stories about “the Amazons” — a genteel group of widows and spinsters in the town of Cranford. They’re in the driving seat in this small town — what men we encounter fall into two categories. Those who are useful; tending gardens, bandaging limbs and selling new frocks for example. The other kind are disruptive figures, like the retired military man Captain Brown or the conjurer Signor Brunoni.
But on all the important matters — keeping up to date with everyone’s affairs; keeping young maids in order and deciding what can and cannot be served at card parties — the Cranford women reign supreme.
Through the narrator Mary Smith, who makes regular visits to her friends, we learn the small and large concerns of these women, their love of gossip and the importance they attach to rituals and protocols. This is a world in which there are precise rules about receiving and returning visits from the residents; money-spending is viewed as ostentatious while economy is “elegant.”.
.. it was considered ‘vulgar’ (a tremendous word in Cranford)t o give anything expensive, in the way of eatable or drinkable, at the evening entertainments. Wafer bread and butter were all that the Honourable Mrs Jamieson gave and she was sister in law to the late Earn of Glenmire…
At the heart of the story are the sisters Miss Deborah and Miss Matty Jenkyns, daughters of a former rector of Cranford. Their life proceeds at a fairly settled pace according to the routines established by their now-dead father.
But their peace, and that of their friends, is constantly challenged. Robbers are, they fear, ready to pounce on them in Darkness Lane and burglars lurk in the shadows, both scenarios leading to some truly hilarious episodes. These imagined threats however are countered by the all too real disaster that befalls one of the sisters with the collapse of the bank where she has invested almost all her savings.
It’s a salutary reminder that unmarried women of a certain class led a precarious life in the mid nineteenth century. Those without family wealth or a male protector, had very few options for them to gain an income “without materially losing caste. Few of them were ever educated enough to become teachers or governesses and their skills with handicrafts like embroidery served little purpose since to sell such items was deemed vulgar.
But the women of Cranford are resilient and loyal towards their friends. They may squabble over the merits of seed cake and who gets to sit in the sedan chair and settle down to cards, but when one of them is in trouble, they all rally around.
Beneath the inconsequential chatter about hats, cakes and social invitations, Cranford is a story about friendship and loyalty. It’s a joy to read.
There are a couple of main themes to touch on. Money worries, and the limitations and lack of options for women, especially unmarried women, at the time. Regardless of differing opinion, the fact of the matter is that single women over a certain age without family money or male companionship, found themselves in the awful situation of having very few socially acceptable options to provide an income upon which they could live. The ladies of Cranford are a resilient bunch, full of warmth and dignity, and have each other if the chips are down.
The way that the women all banded together even though they were a mix of classes, purely because they all wanted to live the same way was so precious.