Wives and Daughters in Never too Late to Read Classics

Aug 17, 2019 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: audible-us, 2019-read, hf, classics, victorian, england, love, relationships, long

An absolutely delightful read. The author nails how people behave, back in the 1830s and still now today. Laughing and smiling is not what one expects with a book of realism. It is this in the writing that I find both intriguing and appealing.

The story is about Molly Gibson. She is twelve when the story starts. At the age of three her mother had died and so she had been raised by her loving father, Doctor Gibson of the provincial English town Hollingford. It is about a day’s journey from London. ...more

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May 04, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, victorians, read-2010

Wives and Daughters was written in the 1860s and serialised in the Cornhill Magazine. It is set in the 1820s and deals to a large extent with the position of women in Society. Elizabeth Gaskell left it unfinished, so any dramatiser of the novel is faced with guessing the intended outcome of the story.

Theresa Heskins previously adapted Lady Audley's Secret for the Woman's Hour serial, and has adapted Bleak House and Great Expectations for the New Vic Theatre, North Staffordshire, where she is Art ...more

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Dec 02, 2022 Laura rated it liked it

Listened to Elizabeth Klett on Librivox. I think I enjoyed listening to this more than I would have enjoyed reading it, which is what I feel about serials in general. I listened while I knit a sweater for my ten month old and finished the second sleeve at the second to last chapter.

Given that there’s very little change of scenery in the book, and not too much in the way of plot honestly, it’s most interesting as a character study and look at characters that are not purely ridiculous or fully goo ...more

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May 20, 2014 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: england, historical-fiction, read-in-2014

"Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centers on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, bro9ught up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister enters Molly's quiet life -- liveable, 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 criti "Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centers on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, bro9ught up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister enters Molly's quiet life -- liveable, 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 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."
~~back cover

A very enjoyable read, while at the same time making one's teeth gnash in frustration. The characters seem oversimplified: Molly, so sweet , so trusting, so good & selfless, so adoring of her father that she seems the quintessential case of arrested development; Hyacinth Gibson, nee Kirkpatrick, who seemingly doesn't have a thought in her pretty head for anything but her own comfort and ideas and who prattles from morning to night about nothing of any consequence; her daughter Cynthia, the pretty, flirtacious Jezebel who nonetheless goes out of her way to be a friend and a sister to Molly as long as it doesn't interfere with her own conquests; the squire Hambley of Hambly, the complete stereotype of the ignorant, bigoted country squire; his son Osborne, frail but doted upon and fawned over by his parents, to his detriment; his son Roger, the traditional second son who has all the English manly virtues but who is overlooked and undervalued by his parents; Mrs. Hambley, wasting away seemingly of boredom and langor, until she dies of it; the assorted village gossips. All coming off the page as expected.

But the slightly acid, slightly sharpened portrayal of all these characters does indeed limn a damning portrait of the contrast between the status of men and women in this society. Women are to to sweet and obedient, and men are to be manly, uphold the virtues, and rule the roost. With disasterous consequences I'm happy to report. ...more

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