{"product_id":"cranford-isbn-9780141439884","title":"Cranford","description":"\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Gaskell's portrait of kindness, compassion, and hope\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCranford depicts the lives and preoccupations of the inhabitants of a small village - their petty snobberies, appetite for gossip, and loyal support for each other in times of need This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty, But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reapparance of long-lost relatives. to Lady Glenmire, who shocks everyone by marrying the doctor. When men do appear, such as 'modern' Captain Brown or Matty's suitor from the past, they bring disruption and excitement to the everyday life of Cranford. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In her introduction, Patricia Ingham places the novel in its literary and historical context, and discusses the theme of female friendship and Gaskell's narrative technique. This edition also contains an account of Gaskell's childhood in Knutsford, on which Cranford is based, appendices on fashion and domestic duties supplemented by illustrations, a chronology of Gaskell's life and works, suggestions for further reading, and explanatory notes.\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell\u003c\/b\u003e was born in London in 1810, but she spent her formative years in Cheshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and the north of England. In 1832 she married the Reverend William Gaskell, who became well known as the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Manchester’s Cross Street. As well as leading a busy domestic life as minister’s wife and mother of four daughters, she worked among the poor, traveled frequently and wrote. \u003cb\u003eMary Barton\u003c\/b\u003e (1848) was her first success.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo years later she began writing for Dickens’s magazine, \u003cb\u003eHousehold Words\u003c\/b\u003e, to which she contributed fiction for the next thirteen years, notably a further industrial novel, \u003cb\u003eNorth and South\u003c\/b\u003e (1855). In 1850 she met and secured the friendship of Charlotte Brontë. After Charlotte’s death in March 1855, Patrick Brontë chose his daughter’s friend and fellow-novelist to write The \u003cb\u003eLife of Charlotte Brontë\u003c\/b\u003e (1857), a probing and sympathetic account, that has attained classic stature. Elizabeth Gaskell’s position as a clergyman’s wife and as a successful writer introduced her to a wide circle of friends, both from the professional world of Manchester and from the larger literary world. Her output was substantial and completely professional. Dickens discovered her resilient strength of character when trying to impose his views on her as editor of \u003cb\u003eHousehold Words\u003c\/b\u003e. She proved that she was not to be bullied, even by such a strong-willed man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer later works, \u003cb\u003eSylvia’s Lovers\u003c\/b\u003e (1863), \u003cb\u003eCousin Phillis\u003c\/b\u003e (1864) and \u003cb\u003eWives and Daughters\u003c\/b\u003e (1866) reveal that she was continuing to develop her writing in new literary directions. Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly in November 1865.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePatricia Ingham\u003c\/b\u003e is Senior Research Fellow and Reader at St Anne's College, Oxford. She has written on the Victorian novel and on Hardy in particular. she is the General Editor of all Hardy's fiction in the Penguin Classics and has edited Gaskell's North and South for the series.","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300232581349,"sku":"NP9780141439884","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780141439884.jpg?v=1767724201","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/cranford-isbn-9780141439884","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}