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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 step-sister enters Molly's quiet life - loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. 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. 'No nineteenth-century novel contains a more devastating rejection than this of the Victorian male assumption of moral authority', writes Pam Morris in her introduction to this new edition, in which she explores the novel's main themes - the role of women, Darwinism and the concept of Englishness - and its literary and social context.
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| $99.99 | Digital |
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Chris Phillips
reviewed Wives and Daughters on April 10, 2012 Wives and Daughters
To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl…
Wives and Daughters reads like a fairytale and we are immediately enchanted by its gentle charm. Stepmother, prince, villain, woods, a ball, castle, climbing roses, birds and beasts. It's all there.
However, the stepmother is not evil - just annoying and shallow. The prince is but a squire, the villain merely ungentlemanly. The woods is a friendly lesson in botany, the ball disappointing, the castle entailed, its timber rotting. Roses get tossed into the fire,
'It is Mr. Preston,' said she, in answer to Molly. 'I shall not dance with him; and here go his flowers''
Into the very middle of the embers, which she immediately stirred down upon the beautiful shrivelling petals as if she wished to annihilate them as soon as possible.
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell spins this long leisurely tale with such attention to detail, characters, and dialogue that you feel transported to another time and place. And bittersweet it is. Death, blackmail, secret promises, undisclosed marriages, politics, scandal, the worry of money are ever present.
Her 'wicked' characters are presented with enough sympathy that you enjoy them as much as the good ones. Take Hyacinth Gibson for example - she corresponds somewhat to Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Austen totally denied all sympathy to tedious Mrs. Bennet, but Gaskell makes sure we see Hyacinth as a person - selfish and shallow - but not uninteresting, and not incapable of sincere kindness.
And the good characters are flawed - sometimes you are not certain to which side they'll land. Or where you'll land, given the exasperating qualities some of them have. There is mystery too given to these people, hints dropped about things that are not revealed by the author.
I am completely in love with Wives and Daughters, so take my 5 stars you pretty little thing.
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