Cranford

Ever since that day there has been the old friendly sociability in Cranford society; which I am thankful for, because of my dear Miss Matty's love of peace and kindliness. We all love Miss Matty, and I somehow think we are all of us better when she is near us.

Episodic Cranford sketches — Captain Brown, Lady Glenmire, Peter's return — fuse into gentle comedy with Peter's reconciliation as closure rather than a single tragic arc, so plot scores 82.

IN the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble.

Miss Matty, Miss Pole, Captain Brown, and Peter are warmly individuated — the Amazons of Cranford as a chorus of eccentric kindness — without flattening into caricature only, so cast scores 89.

Then there were rules and regulations for visiting and calls; and they were announced to any young people who might be staying in the town, with all the solemnity with which the old Manx laws were read once a year on the Tinwald Mount.

Sixteen chapters of leisurely sketches and visiting etiquette; Peter's return provides closure without thriller tempo, so pace scores 84.

I can testify to a magnificent family red silk umbrella, under which a gentle little spinster, left alone of many brothers and sisters, used to patter to church on rainy days. Have you any red silk umbrellas in London?

Gaskell's witty domestic prose — the red silk umbrella, gigot sleeves, Captain Brown's Rambler — fuses comedy of manners with tender observation, so prose scores 88.

For keeping the trim gardens full of choice flowers without a weed to speck them; for frightening away little boys who look wistfully at the said flowers through the railings; for deciding all questions of literature and politics without troubling themselves with unnecessary reasons or arguments, the ladies of Cranford are quite sufficient.

Cranford in possession of the Amazons — Drumble twenty miles away, gentlemen absent, ladies governing by kindness — is a morally charged village stage, so world scores 87.

IN the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women.

'Cranford is in possession of the Amazons' establishes the town's comic constitution before Captain Brown disrupts it — inviting in wit rather than shock, so hook scores 86.

Captain Brown sported a bit of literature. "And what do you think of them?" exclaimed Captain Brown. "Aren't they beautiful?" This was evidently too much for Captain Brown to take placidly.

Village comedy narrated by a semi-insider — the Amazon society and Johnson dispute anticipate the English village idyll, so innov scores 85.

Somehow or another he did; and fairly got them into conversation together. Major and Mrs Gordon helped at the good work with their perfect ignorance of any existing coolness between any of the inhabitants of Cranford.

Peter reconciles Cranford factions at the Assembly; peace restored without erasing past quarrels — morally generous closure for Miss Matty, so ending scores 87.