quotes from cranford

"Although the ladies of Cranford know all each other's proceedings, they are exceedingly indifferent to each other's opinions. Indeed, as each has her own individuality, not to say eccentricity, pretty strongly developed, nothing is so easy as a verbal retaliation; but somehow good-will reigns among them to a considerable degree. 

 

The Cranford ladies have only an occasional little quarrel, spirited out in a few peppery words and angry jerks of the head; just enough to prevent the even tenor of their lives from becoming too flat."

—Mary Smith in "Our Society at Cranford"

 

"'How old is he?' I asked, after a pause of castle-building.

'He must be about seventy, I think, my dear,' said Miss Pole, blowing up my castle, as if by gunpowder into small fragments."

—"A Love Affair at Cranford"

"We have always lived genteelly, even if circumstances have compelled us to simplicity."

—Miss Matty in "Memory at Cranford"

"Miss Barkers, who confined themselves to truth and did not approve of miscellaneous customers, throve notwithstanding."

"We thought it better to submit graciously, even at the cost of our gentility—which never ate suppers in general—but which, like most non-supper-eaters, was particularly hungry on all special occasions."

—Mary Smith in "Visiting at Cranford"

"'Will you look, my dear—you are a stranger in the town, and it won't give rise to unpleasant reports—will you just look round and see if the rector is here? If he is, I think we may conclude that this wonderful man is sanctioned by the Church, and that will be a great relief to my mind."

—Miss Matty in "The Great Cranford Panic, Part 1"

"'Well!' said Miss Pole, sitting down with the decision of a person who has made up her mind as to the nature of life and the world, (and such people never tread lightly, or seat themselves without a bump) . . . "  

—Mary Smith in "The Great Cranford Panic, Part 2"

“We all liked Lady Glenmire the best. She was bright, and kind, and sociable, and agreeable; and Mrs. Jamieson was dull, and inert, and pompous, and tiresome. But we had acknowledged the sway of the latter so long, that it seemed like a kind of disloyalty now even to mediate disobedience to the prohibition we anticipated.”

"Deborah had the knack of always looking as if the latest fashion was nothing new to her."

—Mary Smith in “Stopped Payment, at Cranford”