Wives and Daughters (1865) - Elizabeth Gaskell

Written by Elizabeth Gaskell
Read by Josephine Bailey
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Tantor Media
Release date: January 17, 2011
Duration: 26:49:46

Elizabeth Gaskell’s masterpiece Wives and Daughters is an enchanting tale of romance, scandal, and intrigue in the gossipy English town of Hollingford around the 1830s.

Molly Gibson is the daughter of the doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford. Her widowed father marries a second time to give Molly the woman’s presence he feels she lacks, but until the arrival of Cynthia, her dazzling stepsister, Molly finds her situation hard to accept. Intertwined with the story of the Gibsons is that of Squire Hamley and his two sons. As Molly grows up and falls in love, she learns to judge people for what they are, not what they seem. Through Molly’s observations the hierarchies, social values, and social changes of early nineteenth-century English life are made vivid in a novel that is timeless in its representation of human relationships.

The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.

Wives and Daughters, generally thought to be Elizabeth Gaskell’s finest achievement, is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life. It offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society through the themes of Darwinism, the role of women, and the concept of Englishness.