Difference between revisions of "Cranford (Gaskell, 1853)"
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Elizabeth Gaskell. Cranford. Pub. 1851-3. Ed. Elizabeth Porges Watson and Dinah Birch. Oxford World's Classics, 2011. | Elizabeth Gaskell. Cranford. Pub. 1851-3. Ed. Elizabeth Porges Watson and Dinah Birch. Oxford World's Classics, 2011. | ||
| + | |||
| + | *serialized in Household Words Dec 1851-May 1853, whilst [[Bleak House (1853)]] was being published | ||
| + | * '''good for''': material culture (esp. ch. 5 but also everywhere, 111); performance of class (5); 110 transformation of serialized short fiction into a novelistic fiction while in process; 10 "vulgarity" of serialization vs. Rasselas; 35 Tennyson and Blackwood's; 59 Deborah becomes her father the rector's secretary (reading, writing, copying) as Casaubon wants Dorothea to do, but here more limitedly, in [[Middlemarch (Eliot, 1872)]] | ||
==General== | ==General== | ||
| − | |||
*Forster a fan (Intro) | *Forster a fan (Intro) | ||
*4 positioning the audience as urban: "Have you any red silk umbrellas in London?" | *4 positioning the audience as urban: "Have you any red silk umbrellas in London?" | ||
| Line 8: | Line 10: | ||
*5 vulgarity, "elegant economy" keywords | *5 vulgarity, "elegant economy" keywords | ||
*6 protesting against the train - modernity | *6 protesting against the train - modernity | ||
| + | *69 the old arbiters of gentility struggling with forms of address | ||
| + | *76 the poorness of the peeress Lady Glenmire reassures them | ||
| + | *83 the range of superstitious beliefs when Brunoni the magician comes (which registers for Marty in not calling the drips of candle wax "winding sheets" but "rolley-polleys") | ||
| + | ** persistence of oral, old culture: [[Walter Benjamin#Storyteller]], [[St Clair 2004]] | ||
| + | *105 Miss pole: "it argued a great natural credulity in a woman if she could not avoid getting married" | ||
| + | *106 Matty's sad, diffident monologue about what could have been | ||
| + | *110 by this point you really get the novel-ization of the disconnected stories | ||
| + | *122 interesting - Matty a shareholder in a bank that might go bust - makes me think of Trollope probably, or the Holmes story with the captain and the son trying to prove his banker father wasn't a fraud | ||
| + | *140 the loss of caste involved in the plan for Matty to start selling tea | ||
| + | *141 Lady Glenmire's change of caste as Mrs Higgins too | ||
| + | *the conclusion is doubly satisfying because we have the emotional return of Peter but he's not the feud ex machine: the women collectively figured out a solution for Matty that worked before he came | ||
==Theme Tracking== | ==Theme Tracking== | ||
===Reading/Writing=== | ===Reading/Writing=== | ||
| − | *10-11 scene in which Capt Brown reads aloud from | + | *10-11 scene in which Capt Brown reads aloud from Pickwick and Miss Jenkyns dismisses it as not as good as Johnson's Rasselas: "I consider it vulgar, and beneath the dignity of literature, to publish in numbers." [[St Clair 2004]] |
*14 Ms Deborah Jenkyns's letters "stately and grand, like herself" | *14 Ms Deborah Jenkyns's letters "stately and grand, like herself" | ||
*18 Capt Brown is struck and killed by a train whilst reading, presumably a new number of Pickwick? | *18 Capt Brown is struck and killed by a train whilst reading, presumably a new number of Pickwick? | ||
*23 Galignani's newspaper for English men abroad brings Maj Gordon home to propose to Jessie Brown | *23 Galignani's newspaper for English men abroad brings Maj Gordon home to propose to Jessie Brown | ||
*33 Mr Holbrook's messy library | *33 Mr Holbrook's messy library | ||
| − | *35 he quotes Tennyson and went to buy his book after reading a review in blackwood's | + | *35 he quotes [[Alfred Tennyson]] and went to buy his book after reading a review in blackwood's |
*43ff reading and sorting old letters | *43ff reading and sorting old letters | ||
*46 the Jenkyns's father the Rector having his sermon printed | *46 the Jenkyns's father the Rector having his sermon printed | ||
*50-1 Peter Jenkyns's "awful preparations" with dictionaries and lexicons when studying with his father | *50-1 Peter Jenkyns's "awful preparations" with dictionaries and lexicons when studying with his father | ||
*59 Deborah becomes her father the rector's secretary (reading, writing, copying) as Casaubon wants Dorothea to do, but here more limitedly, in [[Middlemarch (Eliot, 1872)]] | *59 Deborah becomes her father the rector's secretary (reading, writing, copying) as Casaubon wants Dorothea to do, but here more limitedly, in [[Middlemarch (Eliot, 1872)]] | ||
| + | *72 making candle lighters from old notes and letters | ||
| + | *74 the women pay quarter shares for the St James's chronicle, and the footman Mr Mulliner bogarts it and aggravates Miss Pole | ||
| + | *84 reading from the old encyclopedia | ||
| + | *117 the importance Matty and Mary set by getting letters in the post | ||
| + | *127 narrator imagining the "familiar" letter being tossed on the sea on the way to india | ||
===Materiality=== | ===Materiality=== | ||
| Line 27: | Line 45: | ||
*42 string vs rubber bands | *42 string vs rubber bands | ||
* the whole of ch 5 is framed through object relations/economy | * the whole of ch 5 is framed through object relations/economy | ||
| + | *78-9 amazing story about a cat eating Mrs Forester's lace collar | ||
| + | *111 memory inhering in objects, as Ms Pole remembering Peter being seen in India. Excuse of her Indian Muslim gown from the same year | ||
| + | *129 what Matty would have to do not to "materially lose caste" when she loses her money | ||
===Shakespeare=== | ===Shakespeare=== | ||
| Line 32: | Line 53: | ||
*33 Mr Holbrook's apt quotations from shakespeare and Herbert (the narrator compares him at least twice to Don Quixote) | *33 Mr Holbrook's apt quotations from shakespeare and Herbert (the narrator compares him at least twice to Don Quixote) | ||
*63 narrator "my prophetic soul" hamlet | *63 narrator "my prophetic soul" hamlet | ||
| + | *110 "as somebody says, that was the question" Hamlet - when they're wondering if Aga Jenkyns is Peter | ||
Latest revision as of 14:14, 9 April 2018
Elizabeth Gaskell. Cranford. Pub. 1851-3. Ed. Elizabeth Porges Watson and Dinah Birch. Oxford World's Classics, 2011.
- serialized in Household Words Dec 1851-May 1853, whilst Bleak House (1853) was being published
- good for: material culture (esp. ch. 5 but also everywhere, 111); performance of class (5); 110 transformation of serialized short fiction into a novelistic fiction while in process; 10 "vulgarity" of serialization vs. Rasselas; 35 Tennyson and Blackwood's; 59 Deborah becomes her father the rector's secretary (reading, writing, copying) as Casaubon wants Dorothea to do, but here more limitedly, in Middlemarch (Eliot, 1872)
General
- Forster a fan (Intro)
- 4 positioning the audience as urban: "Have you any red silk umbrellas in London?"
- also not talking about money and the class contrast with commerce and trade prefiguring North and South (Gaskell, 1855)
- 5 vulgarity, "elegant economy" keywords
- 6 protesting against the train - modernity
- 69 the old arbiters of gentility struggling with forms of address
- 76 the poorness of the peeress Lady Glenmire reassures them
- 83 the range of superstitious beliefs when Brunoni the magician comes (which registers for Marty in not calling the drips of candle wax "winding sheets" but "rolley-polleys")
- persistence of oral, old culture: Walter Benjamin#Storyteller, St Clair 2004
- 105 Miss pole: "it argued a great natural credulity in a woman if she could not avoid getting married"
- 106 Matty's sad, diffident monologue about what could have been
- 110 by this point you really get the novel-ization of the disconnected stories
- 122 interesting - Matty a shareholder in a bank that might go bust - makes me think of Trollope probably, or the Holmes story with the captain and the son trying to prove his banker father wasn't a fraud
- 140 the loss of caste involved in the plan for Matty to start selling tea
- 141 Lady Glenmire's change of caste as Mrs Higgins too
- the conclusion is doubly satisfying because we have the emotional return of Peter but he's not the feud ex machine: the women collectively figured out a solution for Matty that worked before he came
Theme Tracking
Reading/Writing
- 10-11 scene in which Capt Brown reads aloud from Pickwick and Miss Jenkyns dismisses it as not as good as Johnson's Rasselas: "I consider it vulgar, and beneath the dignity of literature, to publish in numbers." St Clair 2004
- 14 Ms Deborah Jenkyns's letters "stately and grand, like herself"
- 18 Capt Brown is struck and killed by a train whilst reading, presumably a new number of Pickwick?
- 23 Galignani's newspaper for English men abroad brings Maj Gordon home to propose to Jessie Brown
- 33 Mr Holbrook's messy library
- 35 he quotes Alfred Tennyson and went to buy his book after reading a review in blackwood's
- 43ff reading and sorting old letters
- 46 the Jenkyns's father the Rector having his sermon printed
- 50-1 Peter Jenkyns's "awful preparations" with dictionaries and lexicons when studying with his father
- 59 Deborah becomes her father the rector's secretary (reading, writing, copying) as Casaubon wants Dorothea to do, but here more limitedly, in Middlemarch (Eliot, 1872)
- 72 making candle lighters from old notes and letters
- 74 the women pay quarter shares for the St James's chronicle, and the footman Mr Mulliner bogarts it and aggravates Miss Pole
- 84 reading from the old encyclopedia
- 117 the importance Matty and Mary set by getting letters in the post
- 127 narrator imagining the "familiar" letter being tossed on the sea on the way to india
Materiality
- cross ref with Schaffer 2011 on handicraft
- so. Much. Fabric.
- 42 string vs rubber bands
- the whole of ch 5 is framed through object relations/economy
- 78-9 amazing story about a cat eating Mrs Forester's lace collar
- 111 memory inhering in objects, as Ms Pole remembering Peter being seen in India. Excuse of her Indian Muslim gown from the same year
- 129 what Matty would have to do not to "materially lose caste" when she loses her money
Shakespeare
- 14 plumed wars Othello
- 33 Mr Holbrook's apt quotations from shakespeare and Herbert (the narrator compares him at least twice to Don Quixote)
- 63 narrator "my prophetic soul" hamlet
- 110 "as somebody says, that was the question" Hamlet - when they're wondering if Aga Jenkyns is Peter
