Wives and Daughters (Dover Thrift Editions) - Softcover

Gaskell, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486817369 ISBN 13: 9780486817361

Publisher: Dover, 2018

Synopsis

Molly Gibson is a small-town girl in England during the 1830s, kind-hearted but unwise in the ways of the world. Her widower father sends her to stay with the aristocrats of Hamley Hall, where she befriends both of the family's sons, learning the elder's dark secret while falling in love with the younger. But her father has remarried in her absence, and in addition to a selfish and ambitious stepmother, Molly has acquired a stepsister who quickly becomes a rival for the younger Hamley's affections.
Molly's strikingly realistic coming-of-age story, recounted with humor and pathos, depicts the consequences of both good and bad marriages as well as the dynamics of changing relationships within family. Elizabeth Gaskell develops timeless themes of friendship, love, money, and tragedy amid a portrait of a rapidly changing Victorian world. Her richly drawn characters and their preoccupation with social behavior and moral issues provide thought-provoking entertainment in the manner of Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and George Eliot.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

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.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–65) was a major Victorian novelist whose works have provided readers with endless enjoyment and social historians with enormous insight into English life in the mid-19th century. Her major works include Cranford and Wives and Daughters, in addition to the first biography of her fellow novelist Charlotte Brontė.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0486817369
• ISBN 13: 9780486817361
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640