| Synopsis: |
"Mr. Harrison's Confessions" is an episodic tale best known for being a precursor and preview to its famous cousin Cranford. Indeed, like Cranford it invites readers to chuckle over the unlimited creativity of those wishing to slip no further in their social ranking. The story also has an odor of Knutsford about it in its bucolic setting and because it describes the life of a country doctor, a subject with which Mrs. Gaskell was intimately familiar as a young girl living in Knutsford and observing her uncle, Peter Holland. "Mr. Harrison's Confessions" features the protagonist's introduction, following study at Guy's Hospital in London, into general practice in the country town of Duncombe. Much of the tale revolves around the potential for romantic misinterpretation by the middle-aged spinsters and matchmaking parents when this young, inexperienced, unmarried doctor begins to practice medicine. His mentor, Mr. Morgan, attempts to steer him on the right path, but he too, |