Cranford And Mr. Harrison’s Confessions

Cranford (1851-53) sketches the mannered, old-fashioned lifestyle maintained by ladies in a quiet country village in the 1830s. This bemused tale of ancien fashions and “elegant economy” is complemented with a short story about a young surgeon’s disruptive entry into Duncombe village. In both stories, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) shows a genteel class entrenched in the receding era, while a new age presents its visiting card.