The Last Generation in England

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"The Last Generation in England" is a non-fiction article by Elizabeth Gaskell, published in the American Sartain's Union Magazine in July 1849, relating memories of a small country town in the generation prior to her own. As such, it is seen as the real-life background for her 1853 novel Cranford .[ by whom? ] Recognising she was living through a time of great and rapid change, Gaskell was inspired to write the article by reading that the author Robert Southey had himself once considered composing a history of English domestic life.[ citation needed ]


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