Author Topic: CRANFORD by Elizabeth Gaskell (Read 42871 times)

PatH · « **Reply #280 on:** February 05, 2017, 11:56:26 AM »

heading

PatH · « **Reply #281 on:** February 05, 2017, 11:57:02 AM »

Quote from: JoanK on February 04, 2017, 03:40:28 PM

I have fallen in love with this book, and never want it to end. may start over again, and pick up some of the little things I missed on the way.

I feel the same way. If I reread sections, I see more things each time.

When I started the book, I had the trouble I always have when a book introduces a batch of characters pretty much at once--keeping them straight. I had to do a lot of back and forth, and it takes a while to sort out how different the ladies are, since superficially they all do the same things, and their characters are painted with tiny strokes--I love the way Gaskell can say so much with a tiny remark. I mean to reread the whole thing now, and I know I will see a lot that I missed.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #282 on:** February 05, 2017, 12:49:03 PM »

MKaren - I would like to say a big thank you, which I am sure comes from all of us - for leading this very interesting and engaging discussion. I would never have sat down and read this book without your encouragement, and as a result I have really got back into my 'reading groove' and am devoting time to my books instead of feeling I shouldn't be so 'self-indulgent' when there is other stuff to be done.

Thanks!

Rosemary

Jonathan · « **Reply #283 on:** February 05, 2017, 03:08:40 PM »

Participating in this read has been a lot of fun. Thanks to all of you. How differently we all read. How different in what we look for and what we find. And nobody looks harder and finds more than Bellamarie. For example:

"I felt Gaskell did not give us enough of each character to connect with. I sort of felt like the visitations, short and sweet and not long enough to get too involved in who they really were. I felt I knew Deborah more than any of the other characters because she seemed to have the most interaction, and Miss Matty kept her alive in memories letting us get to know more about the person Deborah was."

My answer to that would be that Gaskell is more interested in relationships than she is in character: family, social, marital, and community and others. Is it Miss Matty keeping her sister Deborah alive or is it Deborah still controlling Matty from the grave? With a sister like that, who needs a husband? Martha is going to make quite a wife. Going into trade ( a tea shop) may not be genteel, but the transition is not that difficult. The fifteen-minute visitation rule is a fantastic village social gambit. Which can easily be broken by mutual understanding. Of course women can be Amazons. And being seduced is such a wonderful....

bellamarie · « **Reply #284 on:** February 05, 2017, 09:47:32 PM »

Thank you all, I am glad I did finish the book, it did get a bit hectic Gil the last few chapters. I am in the thick of redoing my three bedrooms living with paint cans, bare floors waiting for installation of laminate wood floors, trying to find all new decorating things for the new colors, and moving and packing up the rooms for the installers, on top of keeping up with three grandkids basketball and volleyball schedules. I'm ready for a vacation!

Joan and Pat, I rarely ever read a book more than once, but the two of you make me think I may give this a second try when I am not so busy.

Karen, I want to thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us. I was very happy to share this book discussion with you and everyone.

Jonathan, As usual you bring so much insight into the discussions. I am always in awe of how you are able to get right to the heart of a book and express it so eloquently. I am so happy to have you back.

Rosemary, you always bring us right into the life of England by sharing your experiences with us.

All those who participated I want to thank you, without you there would be no discussion.

PatH · « **Reply #285 on:** February 05, 2017, 10:25:29 PM »

Jonathan, a lot of what you said leads to what I wanted to say about Miss Matty. I think you're right that Deborah still controls Matty, and Matty keeps her alive in memory. Look at Matty's name. I assume the custom is the same as it was in Jane Austen's time. Only the oldest unmarried sister takes the last name. So Deborah was Miss Jenkins, and Matty was Miss Matty. If Deborah had married, Matty would then would have been Miss Jenkins. But when Deborah dies, Matty stays Miss Matty, too much in awe of Deborah to take her name. And her money: despite being warned many times about her bank, she doesn't undo Deborah's decision to put the money there.

PatH · « **Reply #286 on:** February 06, 2017, 11:34:41 AM »

Matty isn't unhappy, and she is doing well at living alone, but nonetheless her life has a central tragedy, and it's partly Deborah's fault. When she was young, she and Mr Holbrook fell in love, and he asked to marry her. Unfortunately he is not quite in her class, though he could be almost there if he were a climber, but he deliberately emphasizes his common side. Deborah and their father persuade Matty that it simply wouldn't do to marry beneath her, but she never forgets him, and when someone else makes her an offer, she refuses him, still in love with Holbrook. When they meet again 30 years later, it's obvious that they still have strong feelings for each other.

She would probably have been happy with Holbrook. He's a really good, kind person, and a thinking and reading man. And Matty longed for children, and loved the ones she knew dearly.

So although Matty has a good life, with a happy ending (as far as the end of the book anyway), it could have been much richer, and she is still wistful when she thinks of that.

PatH · « **Reply #287 on:** February 06, 2017, 02:03:52 PM »

Lady Glenmire faces the same choice 30 years later, and makes the opposite decision without a qualm. Mr. Hoggins is also not quite a gentleman, and has some crude ways, but is a very good man. It's easier for Lady Glenmire to do what she wants, though. She is tough and independent, and doesn't care so much for appearances, and she's been married before, knows exactly what she wants. Also, we're 30 years farther along in the blurring of social lines that came with the Industrial Revolution and the appearance of many newly rich and successful people.

bellamarie · « **Reply #288 on:** February 06, 2017, 03:55:52 PM »

I did not care for Mr. Holbrook, when he returned he seemed a bit self absorbed. I'm not convinced Marty would have been happily married to him. But as we know especially back then being married, having children was enough for women. Holbrook would have been gone most of the time anyway, so Mattty would have been happy with children of her own.

PatH · « **Reply #289 on:** February 06, 2017, 04:30:53 PM »

You're right, Bellamarie, we don't know whether Matty would have been happy or not. But she was in love with him, and thought that was what she wanted, so it threw a touch of sadness over her life. I wonder if he was so self-absorbed before he spent a life alone?

JoanK · « **Reply #290 on:** February 07, 2017, 12:28:00 PM »

But notice that Gaskell gives miss Mattie children by proxy. we leave her in the midst of Martha's growing family, able to spoil the children, as she would have her own grandchildren, if things had been different. A very satisfactory ending.

Which other of Gaskell's books do you recommend? I can get her complete works on kindle.

Jonathan · « **Reply #291 on:** February 07, 2017, 02:44:56 PM »

Joan, I would recommend her biography of Charlotte Bronte. I read it years ago and enjoyed it. The two were acquainted, of course, and good friends. I found it interesting that Charlotte had never made it through Tennyson's poem In Memoriam and shared that information with EG. Grief overload in Hawarth no doubt. But I decided it was time I readJane Eyre, I never have.

And now, opening EG's bio of CB at random, I happened to see this:"She (CB) once told her sisters that they were wrong - even morally wrong - in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, 'I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.' Hence 'Jane Eyre,'said she, in telling her anecdote: "but she is not myself, any further than that."

Then we're directed to a footnote, which reads:

''Mr. George Smith tells us in the Cornhill Magazine how indignant Charlotte Bronte was with Thackeray for introducing her to his mother as Jane Eyre. He overheard her say to him, "No, sir! If you had come to our part of the country in Yorkshire, what would you have thought of me if I had introduced you to my father, before a mixed company of strangers, as ' Mr. Warrington'? " Thackeray replied, "No; you mean 'Arthur Pendennis.'" "No, I don't mean Arthur Pendennis!" retorted Miss Bronte: "I mean 'Mr. Warrington,' and 'Mr. Warrington' would not have behaved as you behaved to me yesterday!" "The spectacle," adds Mr. Smith, "of this little woman, hardly reaching to Thackeray's elbow, but, somehow, looking stronger and fiercer than himself, resembled the dropping of shells into a fortress. - Ed."

The lady was a literary Amazon.

Mkaren557 · « **Reply #292 on:** February 07, 2017, 05:14:30 PM »

Joan. I concur with Jonathan that her biography of Charlotte Bronte is supposed to be one of the best. I have not read all of her works, but I have read Mary Barton and North and South. Both are works of social realism much like Dickens. They are different from Cranford but they are well written and again wonderful portraits of the Victorian Age.Her novella Cousin Phyllis and her short stories are also supposed to be very good.

bellamarie · « **Reply #293 on:** February 07, 2017, 06:16:07 PM »

It's a perfect ending for Miss Matty, not only having her brother Peter return whom she adores, but to as Joan points out, she will have Martha's children to enjoy as if they were her grandchildren.

Joan if you did not join our discussion of Gakell's Wives and Daughters I highly recommend it.

Mkaren557 · « **Reply #294 on:** February 09, 2017, 10:02:10 AM »

We seem to be pretty much finished with the discussion of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Thank you all for your participation. You have been a very strong group. You dug into the text and drew great conclusions about the narrative and about the Victorian Era. You were also so willing to relate the story to out own times and to your own lives. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Cranford transitions us from the romantic world of Jane Austen to the social realism that characterizes the mid-late Victorian Era. Sometime you might want to try Mrs. Gaskell's first novel Mary Barton which is much more a protest against the conditions brought by the industrial progress of the 19th century. If you have not done so, you might want to read something by George Eliot. Many of us read Silas Marner in high school but there is also The Mill on the Floss. Some literary scholars consider Eliot's Middlemarch the finest novel from the period.
I don't know what the book club will be reading next, but keep checking. And if you have any book you think we might like to discuss, put it in the suggestions section or send me an email. Thank you again.

bellamarie · « **Reply #295 on:** February 09, 2017, 10:27:48 AM »

Karen, Thank you again for leading this discussion. I really enjoyed the book and all the posts.

PatH · « **Reply #296 on:** February 09, 2017, 01:21:36 PM »

Yes, it's been a truly splendid discussion. We really dug down, and saw many layers in the book. Although I had read it before, I didn't see half of what I got out of it this time. Thanks to everyone for such good back and forth discussion, and to Karen for such a good job of leading.

JoanK · « **Reply #297 on:** February 09, 2017, 02:14:22 PM »

YES! Thank you Karen for your great work. And to all of us. As usual, WE ROCK!

and thanks foe all the suggestions. can see the "complete works" is in my future.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #298 on:** February 09, 2017, 02:51:57 PM »

MKaren - thanks again for leading the group read, and for the helpful suggestions for further reading. I have to admit, though, that I read Middlemarch just a few years ago and wondered what all the fuss was about - I found it quite boring, which is no doubt a failing in me.

At the moment I am reading The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, a 1950s novel about an upper middle class woman, her rather stuffy but attractive husband, their son, and other characters in their village - characters who, I believe, are about to turn the 'heroine's' life upside down. The 50s were of course another time of great social change - post-war society, the beginning of the end for many traditional values, and the education of those whose families could never previously have afforded to keep them in school, let along send them to university. I am so sad that we are now reverting to that situation - I was one of the lucky ones whose education was fully funded by the state, right through to graduation. I am now having to fork out for both of my daughters - I appreciate that I can (just!) afford it, and that our fees are nothing like those of US colleges, but I still feel they are going to exclude so many people. Our precious National Health Service - another 20th century invention - is also under threat. I would never have believed this could happen, but it seems every single thing is about money and profit now.

I wonder if we should read something like South Riding by Winifred Holtby, friend of Vera Brittain, feminist, and campaigner for women's right to be educated? This, her most famous novel, was published posthumously in 1936, as she died at the age of only 37 in 1935. This is what Amazon says about South Riding:

'The community of South Riding, like the rest of the country, lives in the long shadow of war. Blighted by recession and devastated by the loss, they must also come to terms with significant social change.Forward-thinking and ambitious, Sarah Burton is the embodiment of such change. After the death of her fiancé, she returns home to Yorkshire focused on her career as headmistress of the local school. But not everyone can embrace the new social order. Robert Carne, a force of conservatism, stands firmly against Sarah. A tormented man, he carries a heavy burden that locks him in the past.

As the villagers of South Riding adjust to Sarah's arrival and face the changing world, emotions run high, prejudices are challenged and community spirit is tested.'

The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1936. The rights to the book were given to Somerville College, Oxford by Holtby on her death, which used royalties from South Riding and another of Holtby's books, Pavements at Anderby to fund a scholarship.

Rosemary

CallieOK · « **Reply #299 on:** February 09, 2017, 06:11:45 PM »

Thank you, Karen and others for a good discussion. I didn't participate much - but I enjoyed reading and pondering over all of the detailed analyses.

Jonathan · « **Reply #300 on:** February 10, 2017, 05:24:02 PM »

Thank you, Karen. Thank you, all who participated. Our little visit to Cranford was a lot of fun. And if you should decide to go up to Yorkshire and look around South Riding, I'm eager to go. My bookseller has it and it looks interesting. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. I wish I could see you change your mind about Middlemarch. I've just replaced my worn-out, marked up copy with an OUP edition with every intention to read it again.

But first, something a little different. Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery. Doesn't this sound interesting. Off the back cover:

"Nineteenth-century Europe -from Turin to Prague to Paris - abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. Conspiracies rule history. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all these conspiricies, both real and imagined, lay one lone man?"

Doesn't that sound like a lot of action?

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #301 on:** February 11, 2017, 02:21:21 PM »

Sounds like fun, Jonathan! I saw The Naming of the Rose many years ago and remember enjoying it. I'd be up for reading this book.

In one of my local charity shops I cam across the DVD of the BBC series of Cranford for just 99p! Haven't watched it yet, but looking forward to doing so.

Rosemary

PatH · « **Reply #302 on:** February 11, 2017, 04:39:10 PM »

Enjoy, Rosemary. I saw it before I'd read the book, thought it was very good then, and it will be even better after the book.

Mkaren557 · « **Reply #303 on:** February 11, 2017, 05:30:57 PM »

The video includes Cranford but also weaves in two more stories. I will tell you what they are as soon as I check.

Mkaren557 · « **Reply #304 on:** February 11, 2017, 06:00:48 PM »

My Lady Ludlow and Mr. Harrison's Confessions both short stories or novellas by Mrs Gaskell.

bellamarie · « **Reply #305 on:** February 11, 2017, 06:53:03 PM »

Rosemary what a great find, I bet you will love watching it now that you have read the book. Enjoy!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #306 on:** February 12, 2017, 07:37:26 AM »

Thanks for the information MKaren - and yes, Bellamarie, I'm just waiting for a quiet evening! Seem to have had a constant stream of visitors lately.

ANNIE · « **Reply #307 on:** February 12, 2017, 01:24:11 PM »

I watched "Becoming Jane" on Netflix. True story about Jane Austin's life. It's quite a good movie!

bellamarie · « **Reply #308 on:** February 13, 2017, 11:01:29 AM »

Thanks Annie for the heads up, I will check it out. I love Jane Austen.

Jonathan · « **Reply #309 on:** February 13, 2017, 09:55:27 PM »

Doesn't all the world love Jane Austen? I have a book for you, Rosemarie. I've had it for a while and I keep meaning to read it. How about a discussion?

'Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conguered The World', by Claire Harman. It has a bit on Becoming Jane, but I don't have the time to post it. I want to catch the 10 PM news to see how our PM made out in Washington today meeting your new President.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #310 on:** February 14, 2017, 03:26:44 AM »

Jonathan, I think much of the Western world envies you your president. I know we do - indeed, we often wish we had stayed in Canada. Our wonderful assistant organist at the cathedral where I work has just been chosen as the new director of music for Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, BC. He is Canadian and can't wait to get back there - especially as he will apparently be able to enjoy whale watching from his new home. We will miss him.

And the book sounds good too! I have to admit that having been forced through Austen at school, I haven't read any of her books for many years, though I've seen the Pride & Prejudice film with Keira Knightly. I do wonder if anyone benefits from having 'set books' imposed upon them in English lessons. I think if I were a teacher - one with all the time and resources in the world of course! - I would ask my students to read a book of their choosing and critique that, rather than dragging them kicking and screaming through Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, Wordsworth, etc.

Rosemary

ANNIE · « **Reply #311 on:** February 14, 2017, 10:43:52 AM »

Oh, Rosemary, after seeing "Becoming Jane" and discovering that she only wrote SIX novels, I think I might watch one of them? Well, maybe I will look up Jonathan's book, too! Also, there are two books out with tempting titles. One I have read, "The Mysterious Death Of Miss Jane
Austen" and another entitled "What Would Jane Austen Do?". I am looking for that one now. Will be back soon!💕😊
I just put a hold on Jonathon's book which is non-fiction and I am first in line for one of their six books!
Back momentarily!

Well, I found What Would Jane Austen Do on Goodreads and after reading this review,I will just skip this one, for sure.

I am not sure why I am even giving this book two stars. I didn't really like it at all, but it wasn't the worst thing I have ever read and I downloaded it free on my Kindle so I am not out any money at least. From the description and title of this book you think that you are going to read a modern day twist on a genre Jane Austen perfected. Well, I think the author got confused on what kind of book she really wanted to write. The premise was sketchy to begin with. Two ghost sisters that haunt the home they lived in during Jane Austen's life. An unsuspecting guest sleeps in their old rooms and gets a visit from the two sisters who beg her to go back in time to right some wrong they believe they committed. She only agrees when she realizes that they know Miss Austen and she will get to meet the woman she has idolized. So the ghosts whip up all their energy and whisk her back in time. Okay.......... I managed to go with the early chapters thinking by the time she went back in time it would get good. However, it turns out the author really wanted to write a Harlequin romance novel set in the period of Jane Austen's many, much more enjoyable stories. The author bounces back and forth between period dialogue and modern scenes of sex and a liberated woman showing how much better she is than any other female during that time. In the last few chapters I began to wonder if I was even reading the same story in the beginning. The heroine of the book comes back to present day, but two years earlier than when she left so she can have a chance to re-live and make better choices for her future. It all ends with everything tied neatly in a bow and nothing worthwhile to remember the book by.

bellamarie · « **Reply #312 on:** February 14, 2017, 03:49:34 PM »

Jonathan I am going to search for the book you mentioned, 'Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conguered The World', by Claire Harman. I watched the televised news question and answer with President Trump and your Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and they both seemed very excited to work together in the future. Nothing but good vibes came from both men. I was very happy to see that.

Annie I will be looking for this one as well, "The Mysterious Death Of Miss Jane Austen" If you decide to watch Austen's movies I highly recommend Emma. It is my favorite with Romola Garai as Emma Woodhousnd and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. George Knightley.

Rosemary, I can't imagine feeling it a torture to be forced to read Jane Austen in school. I have read every one of her books and find them so enjoyable. I love the humor spattered in with the life situations. Pride and Prejudice and Emma are my two favorite ones.

I'm not sure who decides which books to discuss, but Jonathan I like you have recommended a few which I think would be fun to discuss. So far we are not discussing anything since Cranford has closed. We probably should be posting these in the library section rather here since this one has closed.

Jonathan · « **Reply #313 on:** February 15, 2017, 02:04:37 PM »

dragged 'kicking and screaming through Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, Wordsworth, etc.'

Haha. We all know what you are saying, Rosemary. And wasn't it the same thing with the vegetables at the dinner table. All in good time we realized what we were missing. And so I must ask you to forgive me, as well as Bellamarie, and most of all, perhaps, Adoannie, for leaving her out of it entirely. I should have addressed my post to Roseannmarie, with my reccomendation of Jane's Fame. I'm sorry. I was on a tear to catch the TV coverage from Washington.

Here's another beautiful book for Austen fans, one and all, that I've found on my shelf: Jane Austen, The World of Her Novels. Well written and beautifully illustrated. The author is, Deirdre Le Faye. I remember finding it at the thrift shop. With this charming inscription:

'Dear Aunt Mary, Remembering all our wonderful trips to England, especially the unforgettable Jane tour. Love, D.

I'm reading a biography of Benjamin Disraeli. Jane's Fame says he read Pride and Prejudice seventeen times. Not counting the forced read early on. I'm sorry.

PatH · « **Reply #314 on:** February 15, 2017, 06:24:58 PM »

I beat Disraeli's record for Pride and Prejudice years ago, but don't reread it that often these days. Disraeli wrote fiction too. I've tried to read Sibyl three times, and always get stuck at the same place. That happens to me sometimes with a book I want to read, and often, if I can get past that point, I like the book just fine. Sibyl seems perfectly readable; you can see Austen's influence in the style. It's got politics in it, though, and British politics of that time bewilder me.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #315 on:** February 21, 2017, 08:49:06 PM »

When my reading was curtailed I watched the video - yes, with a patch over the one eye - strange but as long as I am not needing any depth it works - anyhow the movie or maybe it was PBS - whatever the story line was there and I loved the actors - I also had an easier time relating to these ladies than I did while reading - for me I surprising since I usually enjoy a book far more than any director and group of actors interpretation but this time I really enjoyed the movie far more...

JoanK · « **Reply #316 on:** February 23, 2017, 03:14:00 PM »

ROSEMARY: I'm often saddened by stories of friends whose experiences in English Classes turned them against reading great literature. You are punished if you don't finish quickly, or understand the deep inner significance of the sentence on page 235. Many are left feeling they are too stupid to read the "classics" which is not true.

I feel very strongly that this literature is our inheritance. And like any inheritance, it is ours" Ours to do whatever we want with. We can idealize it, or wrap the garbage with it! But before we wrap the garbage, don't you want to peek, and see what was left you? Even if you miss page 235 completely, maybe there's a gem somewhere that will delight you.

bellamarie · « **Reply #317 on:** February 23, 2017, 08:13:52 PM »

JoanK., I so agree, I wish my schools would have imposed the reading the classics while I was in school. Sadly the only two books we read in English class was H. G. Wells The Time Machine and Hiroshima.. I didn't think I would like them but am so glad I have read them. They have stayed with me for over forty years. I had never heard of the famous authors such as Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Wadsworth, etc. The first time I read Austen was just years ago, I began with Pride and Prejudice. It took me a few days to catch on to their dialect, but once I did, I was hooked and could not wait to read all the rest of her books. They are our inheritances as you say, and I for one am glad to accept them and add them to my library and favorites.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #318 on:** February 24, 2017, 03:47:51 PM »

I am honestly not saying we should not read the classics! Just that I know that I, my children and my husband have all been put off them by the way they are taught in UK schools.

Having to dissect paragraphs then churn out 'character studies' for exams is soul destroying. Most teachers end up just saying 'here are the 10 key things you have to get into your answer', 'here is a standard character study of[i] Hamlet[/i]', etc. I am the only person in my family who loves Shakespeare, because they were all bored to death by having to read the plays out loud in class (is sitting at their desks, not acting) when they had no idea what was going on. Shakespeare only had any meaning for me once I had been taken by an aunt to see Richard II at Stratford and to the opera of Falstaff in France, yet I had 'done' Richard II, Henry IV (Parts I and II), Henry V, Hamlet, Macbeth, Anthony & Cleopatra, Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice and the Tempest at school, and I got an A in my A-Level English Literature, largely through learning what i was supposed to say off by heart. I find the UK educational system deeply flawed. There is no time to enjoy the books, it is all about passing exams - and as for doing A Midsummer Night's Dream in first year (ie age 11) because it's got fairies in - honestly, I despair. I watched it again recently when there was a modern interpretation of it on the TV and I was amazed - a play full of magic and sexuality, all of which had completely passed us by. It's the same with Dickens - we were force fed the ones they thought 'easier' like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. I only came to love Dickens when I read Great Expectations, Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities as an adult.

And I fear I have to admit that I still can't stand Wordsworth! I love John Donne and the Metaphysicals, but those Romantic poets just go on and on and on....

Rosemary

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #319 on:** February 24, 2017, 04:44:54 PM »

To each his own as the saying goes but thank goodness I was exposed to many of the greats during my school years - and being the childhood reader that I was I gobbled up more and more of the writings by these classical authors that were readily available in the school library - never took a class in poetry but for me it is all about the words and stringing together a particular awe inspiring phrase that may not say much but is beautiful on the tongue as in the ear and so the romantics have it hands down for me - ah so - as we say - to each his own.

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Author Topic: CRANFORD by Elizabeth Gaskell (Read 42871 times)