Customer Reviews

My Lady Ludlow

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I fell in love with the miniseries, Cranford, first. The acting was supurb, the screenplay a delicious blending of previously disconnected elements. It was truly masterfully done. So, I took my time about buying the book. When I finally did, I was happy that I had. All of the moments that made the miniseries such a delight were there, and more. The book, Cranford Chronicals is a must have for those who love Victorian novels.

This review is for the iPad version of the Chronicals, or at least one story from it. I purchased all three stories for my iPad, so I could read them on the go: Mr. Harrison's Confession, Cranford, and My Lady Ludlow. This review specifically involves My Lady Ludlow. Though, as I've said, I cannot fault the miniseries in any way (it was sheer delight), if it had a weak point that would be the characterization of Lady Ludlow. She was portrayed as a strong willed woman, though a wounded soul, which is correct, but she was something less than completely sympathetic. Her decision to deny education to a young boy seemed arbitrary and mean spirited. The implication seemed to be that she was aristocratic, and that pride was her main motivation there. Reading the original story gives a much clearer picture of her motivations, making her a much more sympathetic character. She wants to do right, she has merely misjudged due to her unusual experiences. Both versions of the story (the miniseries & the original) are well executed, but I think the book is better. It gives us a unique vision that is lacking in the miniseries, which frankly has fallen into the easier route of cliched motivations here. Gaskell's version is well worth the read.

Oh, and did I mention the addition of a comical character, who made me laugh out loud repeatedly? Yes, it is touching and humourous as well, like all great British Literature. Enjoy.

Elizabeth Gaskell, author of "Cranford" and other excellent stories of mid-19th century England, winds the clock back in a charming tale of change. "My Lady Ludlow" is the story of the small rural village of Hanbury around the year 1800, its ways unchanged for centuries. The noble Lady Ludlow presides over the village, kind-hearted but firm in her beliefs in the existing social order and the evils of too much education. Her ways are challenged by, among others, a young and earnest clergyman who wants to build a schoolhouse, and her own estate steward, who wishes to improve the son of a local poacher.

The story is narrated by one Margaret Dawson, a distant and poor relative of Lady Ludlow, who is offered the chance to be properly raised as a gentlewoman. Margaret is witness to a series of episodes involving different people in the village, whose lives all seem eventually to intersect in the person of Lady Ludlow. The Lady Ludlow, despite her attachment to old ways, is too kind and too sensible not to do the right thing for her friends, employees, and tenants. Her dispute with her steward, for example, weaves through most of the book, before being resolved by a decisive act of kindness by the steward that saves Lady Ludlow and the young boy. This and other story twists that brings her to the right thing are often told with humor but filled with acute insight into human nature.

Gaskell has captured the genuine push and pull of real people trying to adapt to changing times. Her insights are honest ones; there are no heroes or villains, only real people dealing with real life. The Lady Ludlow's prejudice against education, for example, are given a plausible basis in a hair-raising and ultimately tragic story about two refugees from the French Revolution whom the Lady attempts to help. Gaskell has captured the flavor and texture of a by-gone era in "My Lady Ludlow."

Some of the characters and episodes from "My Lady Ludlow" were adapted into the BBC/Masterpiece Theater presentation "Cranford." "My Lady Ludlow" is highly recommended to fans of Masterpiece Theater as the rest of the story and as a fine example of Elizabeth Gaskell's work.

My Lady Ludlow is one of the Elizabeth Gaskell books that the BBC miniseries Cranford is based on, and because the TV series used more than one of her novels the plots had to be altered so they could fit together. Seeing the series made me want to read what Gaskell wrote, and though sometimes it's irritating when the book and screen version diverge, in this case reading the book was like indulging in a pleasant alternate reality. I had a little more time to spend with characters I had come to love, albeit in altered but recognizable forms. Probably it's better to go from show to book rather than the other way around, because in the book Lady Ludlow's high and mighty ways are softened and given more context, and if this book Lady Ludlow were met first the BBC portrait of her might cause indignation.

In both book and miniseries Lady Ludlow rules over her little village domain and is sure that education for the lower classes is a bad idea verging on blasphemy. It renders them unfit for the life they have been called to by God, and will surely bring on a reign of terror as horrifying as the French Revolution's. She comes to see things differently, but in the TV series Lady Ludlow's hand is forced, though she is graceful about it, and in the book changing circumstances lead her to eventually allow her naturally sympathetic nature to guide her actions.

The book was a bit (for me) hard to read... hard to get through and figure out the plot. Evidently... again, to me... there was no real plot, other than the story of Lady Ludlow's daily affairs and interference in other's lives. Had I seen the series the previous reviewer mentioned, I may have had another opinion or view of what the author was trying to achieve. I guess, that's it... as I read, I kept waiting to 'see' where the author was going with it.... and I never found it.

Maybe I was looking for something more... on the line of Jane Austin... in that sense, I failed.