Cranford

The Brown Family of Cranford

Captain Brown, upwards of sixty but wiry and elastic in figure, with a stiff military throw-back of the head and a springing step, lives in a small house on the outskirts of town with his two daughters. Miss Brown, the elder, looks almost as old as her father—about forty, plain, hard-featured, sickly, and careworn, with the gaiety of youth long faded. Miss Jessie Brown is ten years younger and “twenty shades prettier”: round-faced, dimpled, with large blue wondering eyes, an unformed snub nose, red dewy lips, and little rows of curls that give her a childlike air she will probably never lose. Miss Jenkyns, in a fit of anger at the Captain, will declare it is time Jessie left off her dimples. Jessie has her father’s jauntiness of gait and dresses about two pounds per annum more expensively than her elder sister—a large sum in the Captain’s finances. On their first appearance together at Cranford Church, the Captain holds his double eye-glass during the Morning Hymn and then sings out loudly and joyfully, drowning the piping clerk.

Captain Brown at Cranford Social Events

At the evening card party given in the narrator’s honor by Miss Jenkyns, the Captain and the Miss Browns are invited, to general curiosity about how a man will fit into Cranford’s female festivities. Card-tables with green baize are set by daylight, candles and clean packs of cards arranged, the fire made up, and the neat maid given her directions. Three ladies sit down to “Preference”; the next four go to another table; and presently tea-trays of delicate egg-shell china and glittering old silver appear, though the eatables are of the slightest. When the Browns arrive, ruffled brows are smoothed and sharp voices lowered; the Captain at once assumes the man’s place, attending to every one’s wants and relieving the maid by waiting on empty cups and bread-and-butterless ladies, all with easy dignity. He plays for threepenny points as gravely as for pounds, yet keeps a watchful eye on his suffering elder daughter. Miss Jessie, unable to play cards, talks amiably to the sitters-out and sings “Jock of Hazeldean”—a little out of tune—to an old cracked piano that was once a spinet, while Miss Jenkyns beats time, out of time, to appear musical.

CHAPITRE I.

This chapter unfolds at a card party in Cranford, where a sequence of social mishaps and literary clashes expose the characters’ pride, class-consciousness, and cultural pretensions. The central event is a debate between Miss Jenkyns and Captain Brown over the merits of Dr Johnson’s Rasselas versus Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, which escalates into a reading contest and ends with Miss Jenkyns declaring her unwavering preference for Dr Johnson.

Miss Jessie’s Indiscretion

Miss Jessie Brown makes an indiscreet remark about her uncle being a shopkeeper in Edinburgh who stocks Shetland wool. Miss Jenkyns, scandalised that this information might reach the Honourable Mrs Jamieson, attempts to drown out the confession with a cough, but the tactless Miss Jessie persists in repeating it to Miss Pole.

A Musical Diversion

To distract the company from Miss Jessie’s embarrassing revelation and restore social dignity, Miss Jenkyns generously proposes music. The narrator observes that this is a kind act on her part, given how much she had been annoyed moments before.

Captain Brown Sports Literature

When the refreshment trays appear, conversation turns to cards, and Captain Brown introduces a literary topic by asking whether anyone has seen The Pickwick Papers, which was then being published in monthly parts.

The Pickwick Papers

Miss Jenkyns, who considers herself literary due to her clergyman father’s library of divinity and manuscript sermons, regards any mention of books as a personal challenge. She claims not only to have seen The Pickwick Papers but to have read them, setting up a confrontation with Captain Brown.

Miss Jenkyns Accepts the Challenge

After Miss Jenkyns judges Dickens’s work as inferior to Dr Johnson’s and recommends the young author persevere, Captain Brown cannot contain himself. Miss Jenkyns, with regal composure, consents to hear him read a passage, settling herself with an air of resignation.