“Where feminine delicacy is gone to, I don’t know.”

The  19th century novel Cranford–written by Elizabeth Gaskell–is the story of life amongst the gentry in a small village. The first few lines of the novel note, “if a married couple” moves to town, “somehow the gentleman disappears.” These disappearing gentlemen are vanquished by boredom, snapped up by their military obligations, or seduced by business concerns. This description of why households primarily consist of women sets the stage for the gentle village life of Cranford.

A spinster who occasionally visits Cranford narrates the chapters–a series of vignettes about life in Cranford. She is frequently the guest of the unmarried sisters, the Jenkyns. Like most country villages, nothing ever really happens in Cranford, but that doesn’t stop the local inhabitants from creating intrigues, disapproving of certain minor social faux pas, and exaggerating insignificant incidents until they become near catastrophes. For example, in one of the chapters, some of the ladies imagine that the French are invading. This leads to a state of semi-hysteria in most of the households–with paranoia reigning whenever a new face is seen in the village. France is perceived as a volatile place “where they are always having revolutions.”

A close-knit circle, the Cranford ladies are unfamiliar with the society of males, so when Captain Brown and his two daughters settle in Cranford, his male presence creates quite a stir. Unfortunately Captain Brown and Miss Jenkyns maintain a feud regarding who is the superior writer–Johnson or Dickens. Another unfortunate male residing in Cranford is the local doctor, a Mr. Hoggins. He’s considered crude and vulgar, and not really fit for feminine society.

These droll tales of life in Cranford are filled with benevolence towards the many foibles of humankind. The characters are fussy, endearing and quaint. Gentle humour plays a large role in each of the chapters, and the reader must possess a certain generosity towards the sheltered lives of those who dwell in Cranford. If you enjoy Jane Austen, then you will probably also enjoy Cranford. Cranford is but a pale shadow of Austen, and the novel lacks the sheer brilliance of Austen’s subtle vision of human nature. Nonetheless, the tales of tea time in Cranford, with the Cranford ladies playing cribbage and stuffing a greedy pet dog with seed cake, will delight all of us who long for a more elegant, peaceful age.