Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is a novel about steadfastly unconventional women living in a mid-19th century village. Gaskell’s stories are told in vignette form without any A-Z plotline. These are a series of anecdotes similar to news and gossip one would relate to one’s best friends in a weekly catch-up session.

This novel is told through the outsider’s viewpoint of Mary Smith, a thirtyish singleton who is a friend of the Jenkyns’s family. This novel centers around the widows and spinsters of the town and their enduring friendships, well-intentioned interferences, kindhearted gestures, and their strict adherence to morals and established routines.

Cranford detailed the various levels of socioeconomic status in the village. The novel spanned a period from the 1830s to 1850s. We see our main character, Matty Jenkyns, reduced from a genteel penny pincher to respectable poor, saved from the outer fringes of poverty by the secret machinations of her comrades and townsfolk who loved her.

I have read many classics set around the time that Cranford was written but for some reason I found it much easier to read Austen, Bronte, and Dickens than Gaskell. Cranford was difficult to get into because of the continual references to people, places, events, and items of which I had no knowledge. To compound this matter, the formatting of the book was difficult as well. One paragraph often ended up being an entire page or almost an entire page. The line spacing between sentences and paragraphs was minimal and the indentations were so tiny it was hard to see where one paragraph ended and the next one began.

However, these were small gripes indeed. I got into a reading rhythm at about page 50 and then I started to really appreciate the book for what it was. Give this one a try!