Cranford

I have said previously, twice, that I love Edith Wharton. It is also true that I love Elizabeth Gaskell.  I love the way she writes and how she can make a character completely ridiculous but also, somehow, sympathetic and even likable.  Cranford is a short novel that follows the lives of the "aristocratic" residents of the small town of Cranford over the course of years (maybe decades - the passage of time isn't quite clear).  A few new characters enter and leave, but mostly it's the story of the rather dull lives of the spinsters and widows who live in obsessively genteel poverty.  There is debate over whether they can speak to a young lady whose uncle owns a shop, since these ladies pride themselves on having no connection with anyone who has to work for money.  Ultimately, they decide speaking is allowed. There is also a strict hierarchy among these ladies, based on who has the closest tie to the actual aristocracy.  The novel itself is an interesting commentary on how absurd these rules are, but how they provide some structure for the lives of women who really have nothing to do.  Perhaps it is just the feminist in me, but I also think there is a bit of commentary slipped in about why these women have nothing to do and why such limitations placed on ladies are mistaken.

There isn't really much of a plot line, so this book won't keep you riveted by wondering what's going to happen next, but the characters are fun and I found myself continuing just because I wanted to know what poor Miss Matty would get into a tizzy over next.

I give this book 8 out of 10.

Next up: #54 Possession by A.S. Byatt. That book is huge, so I think my run of multiple books in a week is going to be done for a while.