Cranford

First issued in parts in the early 1850s, this novel describes Cranford, a small Cheshire town run in practice by widows and spinsters of narrow income and strict etiquette. The narrator, Mary Smith, visits from Drumble and records tea rituals, panic over rumoured burglars, the fall and return of Miss Matty Jenkyns after a bank failure, and the town's way of absorbing shock without admitting it has been shocked. Men are scarce and slightly absurd when they appear. The book is a provincial social comedy: linked sketches of female household economy, kindness, and the fear of looking poor.

Quarter bound in red cloth, pale yellow paper boards with a repeat pattern in grey. Pale yellow endleaves. Dark blue slipcase.