Sunday book pick: A band of single women make sense of changing world order in 1853 novel ‘Cranford’

Some might say that Bridgerton’s biggest USP is its romance, someone else might say it is the costumes, yet another person might say it is the background score. However, I would argue that what makes it so delightful is Lady Whistledown’s catty pamphlets that spare no gossip – and no one – in the ton.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1853 episodic novel Cranford does something similar minus the cattiness or malicious intent. It takes us through the lives of women in a small town called Cranford one episode at a time through stories of affairs and marriages, lost brothers, sensational incidents, and more. First serialised in Household Words, a magazine edited by Charles Dickens, Cranford became something of a sensation in the 20th century with multiple radio, theatrical, and television adaptations. Gaskell published it anonymously in 1853 even though she had already tasted some success with her previous novels Mary Barton and Ruth.

A town of Amazons

Cranford, a town “in possession of the Amazons”, is based on Knutsworth where Gaskell grew up. Gaskell did not mean to write Cranford as a coherent novel and was quite happy with its episodic structure – the sixteen chapters are mostly disjointed (the first few especially so) but we notice more coherence in the later ones. The first episodes were well-liked by...

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