SOURCE: “Cranford (1853),” in Elizabeth Gaskell, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, pp. 97-108.

In the following excerpt, Easson considers the sources and episodic structure of Cranford, Gaskell's skill in rendering emotion and character in the work, and the novel's enduring qualities.

If stationary men would pay some attention to the districts in which they reside, and would publish their thoughts respecting the objects that surround them, from such materials might be drawn the most complete county-histories, which are still wanting in several parts of this kingdom …

Gilbert White, ‘Advertisement’, The Natural History of Selborne (1789)

The germ of Gaskell's best-known book (at one time, for most people, her only book) was a story-article, ‘The Last Generation in England’. Published in the American Sartain's Union Magazine (July 1849) and not reprinted until Elizabeth Watson's edition of Cranford (1972), it has affinities in its close observation and delight in social detail with her early ‘Clopton Hall...