Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

I first heard of this book through the Emmy nominations the BBC TV series received. I watched the BBC series and really enjoyed it, and so thought to read the book, only to find out the storyline for the tv series was the combination of 3 books by Elizabeth Gaskell, and also the screenwriters invention. I don't remember the other 2 books, in case you were wondering, but will post them when I find out. Having read Cranford I believe the screenwriters did an excellent job creating their story, and I highly recommend the series. But be prepared that the book does differ from the TV series, sometimes significantly (book kills off a character, TV series does not, and obviously TV series includes characters/storylines from other books as well).

The book was also excellent, though it seemed slow at times, and as always plot developments that differed from the movie were always surprising. There were no suspenseful moments where I just couldn't put the book down, and I read it over a few weeks time which is a really long time for me to read a book. Cranford is told through a young female visitor to the village of Cranford who is not interested in being married off by her step-mother at home. She stays with various older, single or widowed women of the community, focusing mostly on Miss Matty Jenkins. Miss Matty Jenkins is single and suddenly thrust forward when her sister, Miss Deborah, suddenly dies. Miss Deborah had very strict control of their quiet home life and following her death, Miss Matty is forced to make decisions for herself.

Miss Matty faces such dilemmas as which fabric to purchase for her new dress, whether her hired girl can have a beau, whether she should agree to be courted by a lover she refused to marry forty years before due to her father and sister's disapproval, what to do when the bank all her money is invested in fails, and, significantly, how to treat the people around her, both old and new acquaintances.

The Cranford village has such eccentric characters as the gossiping Miss Pole, the wealthy widow Miss Jamieson, Captain Brown-- a man, with all that that entails against him, and so on. The story showed a very charming picture of the quiet village life.

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