This was my reading group’s book of the month. Again, it’s not one I would have chosen to read myself but that’s one of the reasons I joined a group: to discover new writing.

I found Cranford quite difficult to read; the construction of sentences and vocabulary used are very unfamiliar to me. I also found the first chapter – Our Society – very annoying. All the silly rules they live by and the way everyone colludes to keep up appearances.

As I got used to the style of the writing I was more able to appreciate the humour and poignant moments in the book: the cat swallowing the lace that was soaked in milk, the cow dressed in flannel and Martha nudging a guest when he took too long to help himself to potatoes and the card game where they didn’t want to wake the snoozing Mrs Jamieson but at the same time endeavoured to accommodate Mrs Forrester’s deafness. The funniest was when Lady Glenmire gets engaged while Mrs Jamieson is away: ‘The person whom she had left in charge of her house to keep off followers from her maids to set up a follower of her own!’

There are sad times: the death of Peter’s mother, the death of Miss Deborah Jenkyns. I felt for Miss Matty when she starts to wear a widow’s hood after the death of Mr Holbrook. She is forced to face the loss of her youth, the missed chances of married life and children but she puts a brave face on it, saying how lucky she is to have such good friends.

It is touching that, in the end, friendships do prevail. When Miss Matty become bankrupt her friends club together to anonymously help her financially, when Miss Jessie Brown wants to follow her father’s corpse to the grave, Miss Deborah Jenkyns accompanies her even though women didn’t usually attend funerals ‘in polite society’.

I watched a couple of episodes of the BBC dramatisation of Cranford when I was halfway through the book. It brought the book alive for me. I don’t think I’d have enjoyed the remainder of the book as much if I hadn’t seen the characters and places brought to life on screen; I needed it to fire up my imagination.

Note: If you’re going to read this book for the first time I would recommend the version that the above photo links to (rather than the free Kindle version) as it contains notes, a glossary and interesting appendices.

(25th in 2012)