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- Reading time of the complete text: about 7 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 11 minutes

"Cranford" is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell that was first published in instalments in the magazine Household Words and later as a book in 1853. The novel is based on the small Cheshire town of Knutsford where Gaskell grew up. The work has no real plot but is a collection of sketches that affectionately delineate people and customs that were already becoming anachronisms. The novel chronicles a society in transition, moving from one where consideration of rank was the foremost regulator of behaviour and social relations to a more humane emphasis on responding to individual need. The work became popular in the 20th century and saw a number of dramatic treatments for the stage, the radio and TV. The novel has been adapted for NBC radio, British television, and a British musical. A sequel, "Return to Cranford," was broadcast in 2009 in the UK and 2010 in the US.