“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.)