Cranford

This peek at small-town life in Victorian England opens with the delightful statement that the village of Cranford "is in possession of the Amazons." Women own the finer homes, and few gentlemen are in residence. Frequent visitor Mary Smith relates the Cranford happenings. Reader Nadia May lends an authentic air to the women's complaints about bonnets and servants, adding a somber note when the villagers experience death and robbery. The women reveal their true characters when the respected Miss Jenkins faces financial ruin. Ironically, it's a man who rescues this "Amazon" from her plight. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Clare Wille's performance of this gently satirical look at a genteel English village in the first half of the nineteenth century may be the wittiest I've ever heard. Like a kinder version of E.F. Benson's Mapp v. Lucia novels, Gaskell's ladies of Cranford have their jealousies and their vanities. They also have moments of quiet tragedy (a lost brother, a suitor rejected to please the family but never forgotten) and of high drama. Wille made me laugh aloud at the pompous trumpeting of the late Reverend Jenkins. When Miss Poe comes in out of breath, you could swear Wille was running up stairs while delivering her lines. Her performance is always fully engaged, at one with the story, which is itself a small gem. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

The elderly spinster ladies of the village of Cranford pinch pennies while maintaining the standards of behavior suitable for the upper class. Mary Smith, a frequent visitor to Cranford, tells us of the ladies' trials, which range from the trivial--matching the right bonnet to the appropriate occasion--to the momentous--the bank collapse that leaves Miss Matty destitute. Prunella Scales employs a gentle tone that encapsulates the genteel poverty and sympathetic humor of the novel. Miss Matty is endearing and eccentric with her proper manner, her discombobulation when she meets an admirer from long ago, and her determination to repay debts by going into the business of selling tea. In addition to her portrayals of the ladies, Scales's interpretation of Martha, Miss Matty's fiercely loyal servant, makes it clear that she can voice a woman of any class. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine