Clement K. Shorter
“Mrs. Gaskell as an artist has clearly used other experiences than those that Knutsford offered, and, transmuting all through her kindly and generous nature, has given us the delightful pure idyll (Cranford) that we know, the most tenderly humorous book that our literature has seen since Goldsmith wrote. One of the great distinctions of Mrs. Gaskell is in the kindliness of her humour; she is, strange to say, the only woman novelist who is entirely kindly, benevolently humorous.… This benevolent humour of Mrs. Gaskell is to be found in all her books, and it is to be found above all in Cranford.” (Introduction to Cranford. The World’s Classics, 1906.)