CRANFORD (1851-1853) by Elizabeth Gaskell is the quintessential novel of British Victorian small town mores, as only Gaskell could portray them. Cranford is a charming imaginary town filled with chatty females, most of them old spinsters, gossip and nostalgia, loves unfulfilled and remembered, and loves that find a place and a home at last.

The Poor Clare

It was curious how the presence of Mr. Thornton had power over Mr. Hale to make him unlock the secret thoughts which he kept shut up even from Margaret. Whether it was that her sympathy would be so keen, and show itself in so lively a manner, that he was afraid of the reaction upon himself, or whether it was that to his speculative mind all kinds of doubts presented themselves at such a time, pleading and crying aloud to be resolved into certainties, and that he knew she would have shrunk from the expression of any such doubts-nay, from him himself as capable of conceiving them-whatever was the reason, he could unburden himself better to Mr. Thornton than to her of all the thoughts and fancies and fears that had been frost-bound in his brain till now. -from Chapter XXXV: "Expiation" As interest in 19th-century English literature by women has been reinvigorated by a resurgence in popularity of the works of Jane Austen, readers are rediscovering a writer whose fiction, once widely beloved, fell by the wayside. British novelist ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (1810-1865)-whose books were sometimes initially credited to, simply, "Mrs. Gaskell"-is now recognized as having created some of the most complex and broadminded depictions of women in the literature of the age, and is today justly celebrated for her precocious use of the regional dialect and slang of England's industrial North. North and South-Gaskell's fourth novel, which was originally serialized in 1854 and 1855 in the periodical Household Words, edited by Gaskell's friend Charles Dickens-draws on Gaskell's own life as the wife of a progressive preacher in Manchester for its tale of the tumultuous romance between a minister's daughter and a wealthy mill owner. The plight of the poor as well as the class divisions of the era come to the fore here, and helped establish the author's reputation as a champion of the working class. Adapted as an acclaimed 2004 BBC miniseries, this is perhaps Gaskell's most beloved work. Friend and literary companion to such figures as Charlotte Brontë-of whom Gaskell wrote an applauded 1857 biography-Gaskell is today being restored to her rightful place alongside her. This delightful new edition is an excellent opportunity for 21st-century fans of British literature to embrace one of its most unjustly forgotten authors.

Product Description: “For a right understanding of the life of my dear friend, Charlotte Brontë, it appears to me more necessary in her case than in most others, that the reader should be made acquainted with the peculiar forms of population and society amidst which her earliest years were passed, and from which both her own and her sisters’ first impressions of human life must have been received...read more

Product Description: In the county town of a certain shire there lived (about forty years ago) one Mr. Wilkins, a conveyancing attorney of considerable standing. The certain shire was but a small county, and the principal town in it contained only about four thousand inhabitants; so in saying that Mr...read more

Product Description: I am an old woman now, and things are very different to what they were in my youth. Then we, who travelled, travelled in coaches, carrying six inside, and making a two days' journey out of what people now go over in a couple of hours with a whizz and a flash, and a screaming whistle, enough to deafen one...read more

Product Description: Mrs Gaskell is a prominent Victorian novelist, whose best-known novels include Cranford, North and South, and Mary Barton.

Product Description: When my aunt came back from the funeral, she found my mother in the same place, and as dry-eyed as ever. So she continued until after Gregory was born; and, somehow, his coming seemed to loosen the tears, and she cried day and night, till my aunt and the other watcher looked at each other in dismay, and would fain have stopped her if they had but known how...read more

Product Description: You were formerly so much amused at my pride in my descent from that sister of Calvin's, who married a Whittingham, Dean of Durham, that I doubt if you will be able to enter into the regard for my distinguished relation that has led me to France, in order to examine registers and archives, which, I thought, might enable me to discover collateral descendants of the great reformer, with whom I might call cousins...read more

Product Description: "Mother, I should so like to have a great deal of money," said little Tom Fletcher one evening, as he sat on a low stool by his mother's knee. His mother was knitting busily by the firelight, and they had both been silent for some time...read more

Product Description: Long ago I was placed by my parents under the medical treatment of a certain Mr. Dawson, a surgeon in Edinburgh, who had obtained a reputation for the cure of a particular class of diseases. I was sent with my governess into lodgings near his house, in the Old Town...read more

Product Description: O Jem, her father won’t listen to me, and it’s you must save Mary! You’re like a brother to her’ Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner’s son, and making a better life for herself and her father...read more

Product Description: WIVES AND DAUGHTERS by Elizabeth Gaskell, originally serialized in Cornhill Magazine from 1864 to 1866, is one of her most popular works, a classic of British literature. Gaskell died just before finishing the novel, and it was completed by Frederick Greenwood...read more

Product Description: "We have our prejudices in England. Or, if that assertion offends any of my readers, I will modify it: we have had our prejudices in England. We have tortured Jews; we have burnt Catholics and Protestants, to say nothing of a few witches and wizards...read more

Product Description: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell nee Stevenson (1810-1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë...read more

Product Description: A collection of Victorian short stories about marriage written by five well-known authors: George Augustus Moore (1852-1933), Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901) and Henry James (1843-1916).