Cranfordwas first serialized inCharles Dickens’magazineHousehold Wordsbetween 1851 and 1853. The structureless nature of the stories, and the fact thatGaskellwas busy writing her novelRuthat the time theCranfordshorts were being published, suggests that she didn’t initially plan forCranfordto be a cohesive novel.
The short vignettes follow the activities of the society in the fictional small English country town of Cranford. Gaskell drew from her own childhood in Knutsford to imbue her settings and...