Reflections

Cranford the book isn’t the same as Cranford the BBC series—after all, the BBC series was based on three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell, not just this one—but for me the book fills in details and answers questions I wished the TV show had time to go into. Among the particulars that reading Cranford the book put my mind at ease about are why Miss Mattie’s brother Peter never wrote or returned home and how Martha and her beau end up married and living with Miss Mattie. Also, after watching the TV series it was a treat to have a little more time to spend with the wonderful women of Cranford in their book forms.