false 6481954 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg Wives and Daughters is set in the mid-19th century in the small village of Hollingford, in rural England. The Industrial Revolution hasn't yet thrown the country into turmoil, and the railway is just beginning to cut a swathe through the land. It sounds old-fashioned, (and there are themes in the novel which date it) but Gaskell's witty, warm tale of love and longing is surprisingly contemporary. Much of the fun in Wives And Daughters comes from Gaskell's sprightly characterisation, and willful insistence on the unconventional hero and heroine, both worthy, principled, and a little tedious. Molly Gibson, the doctor's daughter, is intelligent, spiritedly dutiful and given to much silent endurance. The object of her affections is Squire Hamley's younger son "Good Roger! Kind Roger! Dear Roger!", a sort of duller Darwin. The course of true love doesn't run smooth, thanks in the main, to the scintillating Cynthia, Molly's step sister. Cynthia is a glorious creation, willful, sinful and incredibly attractive, who, with her French education, strolls through the novel with "the free stately step of some wild animal of the forest"--moving almost, as it were, to the continual sound of music. Cynthia's mother, the epitome of snobbery and self-deceit, whose "words were ready-made clothes, and never fitted individual thoughts" adds to the piquant entertainment. The novel revolves around the trails and tribulations, the questionable reputations of the inhabitants of Hollingford. It was Gaskell's last and most mature work, powerful and engrossing in structure and unfinished. As her daughter reported, in January 1866, Elizabeth Gaskell died: "quite suddenly, without a moments warning, in the midst of a sentence" leaving the last chapter incomplete. Wives and Daughters is just a few pages short of an all embracing happy ending.--Eithne Farry]]> 383206 46 816009 1866 Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics) total:1838|5:708|4:780|3:291|2:43|1:16| 1838 7635 3410 436 1413437 3.97 8140 1821 451724 4.13 1616 382 32379250 936038 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.13 1589 1866 3 5 false Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 08 16:14:01 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 15:00:36 -0700 2008
This is, in every sense of the phrase, the never-ending story.

I had been wanting to see the BBC's film version of this book for years, but never got around to it. In a story too complicated to explain, I was not able to get the video, so decided I'd try to read t...more...]]> 14556280 873792 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 4 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 15:13:07 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 17:51:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4714032 262202 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 2 false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Fri Aug 17 17:59:03 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 18:26:03 -0700 2007 The book focuses on one Molly Gibson, a sweet girl, who is almost too good to be true. As we all know, perfect girls don'...more...]]> 22010134 298072 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 3 1 false Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 10 23:49:31 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 00:19:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 14927383 356347 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 3 false Fri Feb 08 13:37:20 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 05 08:26:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 27715665 1342173 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 1 false Sat Feb 14 20:48:41 -0800 2009 Sat Jul 19 12:15:08 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 14 20:48:41 -0800 2009 This is the story of Molly Gibson, a girl living with her widower father in the 1820s. Molly is completely satisfied with her life, but her father is worried about Molly being motherless, and so marries again. Soon Molly, her new mother an...more...]]> 15517917 911883 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 4 1 false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Feb 15 14:53:18 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 14:59:42 -0800 2008 more...]]> 39319542 1689786 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 1 1 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1991 Thu Dec 04 15:41:02 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 15:43:28 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 69489100 1351359 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 3 1 false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 17:03:50 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 18:10:24 -0700 2009
If you've ever wondered how the Bennett sisters' daughters might have turned out, you may find this interesting. Although written in 1866, it is set 30 years earlier, in a time when Austen's universe of landed gentry was undergoing serious chal...more...]]> 65319376 87302 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 4 1 false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 15:53:33 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 16:19:48 -0700 2009
I hate to be the two millionth person to compare Gaskell to Austen, but so many people are familiar with Jane Austen's work that she has become a handy shorthand author for this type of writing. Readers w...more...]]> 61107776 982899 419517 014243700X 9780142437001 14 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174584951m/419517.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174584951s/419517.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/419517.Wives_and_Daughters 4.31 58 1866 5 0 false Thu Jun 25 15:11:40 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 15:25:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 37397656 1704036 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 4 1 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 10 22:23:44 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 08:20:51 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 49576981 1007484 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 4 0 false Sun Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 12:30:34 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 16:29:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 61989308 2482609 830330 1593082576 9781593082574 25 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255575825m/830330.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255575825s/830330.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830330.Wives_and_Daughters 4.32 85 Elizabeth Gaskell has often been overshadowed by her contemporaries the Brontës and George Eliot. Yet the reputation of her long-neglected masterpiece Wives and Daughters continues to grow, fulfilling Henry James’s prophecy that the novel would “continue for years to come to be read and relished . . .so delicately, so elaborately, so artistically, so truthfully, and heartily is the story wrought out.”

An enchanting tale of romance, scandal, and intrigue in the gossipy English town of Hollingford around the 1830s, Wives and Daughters tells the story of Molly Gibson, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a widowed country doctor. When her father remarries, she forms a close friendship with her new stepsister—the beautiful and worldly Cynthia—until they become love rivals for the affections of Squire Hamley’s sons, Osbourne and Roger. When sudden illness and death reveal some secrets while shrouding others in even deeper mystery, Molly feels that the world is out of joint and it is up to her—trusted by all but listened to by none—to set it right.

</div>]]> 1866 5 1 false Thu Jul 02 22:38:30 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 15:55:33 -0700 2009 Wives and Daughters! A terrific plot and fascinating characters. Gaskell really does a wonderful job of portraying life and love among the country folk in provincial England. There's a touch of mystery and villainy, and a good bit o...more...]]> 80099574 3015503 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 0 false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Dec 06 15:06:22 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 06 15:08:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 68378259 572977 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 4 0 false Sun Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 14:54:51 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 20:21:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 62443882 1859202 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 3 0 false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 07 00:40:04 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 23:03:29 -0700 2009 1 North and South (same author) from BBC and couldn't do anything else until I'd finished all four episodes. I read the book in the same obsessive way.

So I thought I would try another novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. Wives and Daughters doesn't flow as smoothly as Nor...more...]]> 47443264 220366 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 5 0 false Tue Mar 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 24 19:46:50 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 13:51:27 -0700 2009
First, Elizabeth Gaskell is simply very, very funny. She inserts comedy into this novel as ofte...more...]]> 68803934 2556717 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 2 0 false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 05:40:58 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 05:50:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 73036368 1292735 383206 014043478X 9780140434781 380 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632m/383206.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174341632s/383206.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383206.Wives_and_Daughters 4.15 1838 1866 3 0 false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 14:11:40 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 14:15:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6481954