Cranford

When I was in college the first time and a flamingly heterosexual teenaged girl, my English professor who was an "old maid" and a feminist though I don't think the word was coined then, had the class spend an eternity on the book "Cranford." It was a small book and my how she loved it, almost as much as she hated men. "It takes a mighty good man to be better than no man at all," she religiously proclaimed at every chance, and "Cranford" was about strong spinsters, reflective of her own situation and values. At least that was what she wanted us to get out of it, I still remember. Last year Masterpiece Theatre had a series based on this Elizabeth Gaskell novel of nineteenth century England that traumatized me at eighteen, but I never got to see it. I hope to. I have also thought I would like to revisit the written version someday. This evening I stumbled across the full book on line so I don't even have to buy it! I guess when a book becomes a classic it doesn't benefit the economy to send it to press. Now a reading of "Cranford" is on my list of things to do. I think I am ready.