Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - 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.