SOURCE: “What Kind of Book is Cranford?” in Ariel, Vol. 14, No. 2, April, 1983, pp. 53-65.

In the following essay, Griffith details the problematic generic unity and narrative technique of Cranford.

“That a book is a novel means anything or nothing; the practical question relates to its character and contents.”¹

For so slight a thing Cranford is a problematic book. Everyone loves it, although no one is quite sure how it works or what it is. A glance at its printing history and the history of its critical reception confirms the problem. Whereas Mrs. Gaskell's other novels have seen no more than five or six editions, Cranford has appeared in no fewer than one hundred and seventy editions since 1853.² Yet through the critical assessment and revaluation two troubling questions persist. The first is a generic question (is it a novel?), the second a question of narrative technique (what is the...