Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I almost forgot to post this evening because I have lost all sense of what day of the week it is. Do you ever get so absorbed with work that you lose all sense of time? 

Well that's me these days. I've been working seven days a week to get all these Boy Scout sex abuse claims filed before the November 16 bankruptcy deadline. Since I work at home during coronavirus times, one day blends into the next. 

But I remembered! It's time for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Time to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week -- or the book that caught your fancy. Share a link to your post below. Please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag on social media so we can find each other. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the first place, Cranford is in the possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women.

-- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. 

Victober continue! I love the tradition of reading Victorian literature in the month of October, as I discussed last week. I finished The Old Curiosity Shop and started Cranford. I've never read a book by Gaskell and thought I'd start with this short one before I tackled something long, like North and South. 

I'm a little more than halfway through and I like it. It is not nearly as funny as Dickens, but enjoyable. It definitely shows signs of having been published in installments stretching over a few years. It is more like a series of disconnected short stories or sketches than a novel. 

What I like best is how much it reminds me of E.F. Benton's Mapp and Lucia books written in the 1920s and 1930s, roughly 75 years later. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

I wonder what the Cranford ladies did with Captain Brown at their parties. We had often rejoiced, in former days, that there was no gentleman to be attended to, and to find conversation for, at the card-parties.