Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics)
by Elizabeth Gaskell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth GaskellBrand: Penguin Group USA
Editor: Pam Morris
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-01-01
ISBN: 014043478X
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: Wives and Daughters is an excellent three decker by the underappreciated Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell
Summary: 5 Stars
Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) is an excellent Victorian novelist! Among her gems are "North and South"; "Sylvia's Lover"; "Ruth" and "Cranford" (a well received series from BBC which was shown to good reviews in the USA). Mrs. Gaskell lived in Manchester where she and her Unitarian pastor husband raised a large family; helped the poor and socialized with such literary luminaries as Charles Dickens. Mrs Gaskell wrote "The Life of Charlotte Bronte" about her late great friend.
Wives and Daughters is her last novel which was not quite completed (even though it is easy to figure out the tying up of the plot knots). The long novel of over 600 densely worded pages deals with young Molly Gibson who lives in the village of Hollingford in the 1820s and 30s when industrialization was changing life in the English Midlands.
Molly is the daughter of Dr. Gibson a widower. He marries the flighty widow Hyacinth who sets about changing his eating and living habits. She is not a bad woman but she is shallow and obtuse. She and Molly develop a toleration for one another. Her daughter Cynthia arrives from schooling in France. It is with her entrance that the leisurely pace of the novel speeds up and engrosses the reader's attention.
Cynthia is courted by Roger Hamley scion of an old Hollingford family. She is also courted by Mr. Preston a land agent who was earlier engaged to her and Mr. Henderson a rich Londoner. Osborne Hamley is the oldest son of the family. He has a secret French wife who gives birth to a baby boy. Osborne is sickly and poetic while Roger is a scientist modeled after Mrs Gaskell's relative Charles Darwin.
Before the novel ends both Cynthia and young Molly will be wed. The novel is comedic and at times slows down to a caterpillar crawl but like most great novels it packs a punch. This novel is wonderful at portraying English life in a transitional age.
Wives and Daughters has been made into a fine BBC miniseries which is a palette of bucolic scenery and excellent acting on display for the viewer. Who the dickens is Mrs. Gaskell? She is an excellent author who needs greater readership in America. If you want a gentle story which will keep your attention then Mrs. Gaskell's short stories and novels
will meet your literary needs. Wives and Daughters is Mrs. Gaskell's masterpiece and holds its own with the best British fiction of the nineteenth or any other century!
Summary of Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics)
Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, "Wives and Daughters" centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries a new stepsister, Cynthia, enters Molly's quiet life. Loveable but worldly and troubling, Cynthia's arrival alters Molly's daily life. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford. "Wives and Daughters" is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society.Classics Books
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