Cranford

Elizabeth Gaskell

Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 4

A level 4 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Retold for Learners of English by Kate Mattock.

Life in the small English town of Cranford seems very quiet and peaceful. The ladies of Cranford lead tidy, regular lives. They make their visits between the hours of twelve and three, give little evening parties, and worry about their maid-servants. But life is not always smooth – there are little arguments and jealousies, sudden deaths and unexpected marriages…

Mrs Gaskell’s timeless picture of small-town life in the first half of the nineteenth century has delighted readers for nearly 150 years.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Cranford

CRANFORD

In Cranford nobody is very rich, but you must not talk about being poor. Indeed not! That would be a very vulgar thing to do. And in Cranford it is important not to be vulgar. At the Honourable Mrs Jamieson’s evening parties there is only thin bread-and-butter (expensive food would be vulgar), and Miss Deborah Jenkyns is extremely cross when Miss Jessie Brown talks openly about her shopkeeper uncle. An uncle in trade! What horror!

The rules of society were different 150 years ago, but people stay the same. The ladies of Cranford are just like people in any age. They can be sad, happy, proud, brave, angry, jealous – and very kind. When dear, gentle Miss Matty is in trouble, everybody wants to help her. And though there are many sadnesses in Miss Matty’s life, there is also a very happy surprise waiting for her …

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First published in Oxford Bookworms 1997

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ISBN 978 0 19 479167 0

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Illustrated by: John Holder

Word count (main text): 15,015 words

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e-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478641 6

e-Book first published 2012

1

Our society

The first thing to say is that Cranford is held by the ladies. They rent all the best houses. If a married couple comes to live in the town, the gentleman soon disappears from sight. He is either frightened away by being the only man at the Cranford evening parties or he is at his business all week in Drumble, twenty miles away by train.

Anyway, what is there for a gentleman to do in Cranford? The town already h