Wives and Daughters

Name: Wives and Daughters
Brand: Naxos
Availability: InStock
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
ISBN: 9789629549565

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrator: Patience Tomlinson

Abridged: 10 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 03/01/2010

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

When her father remarries, the honest, innocent Molly Gibson suddenly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, worldly and impetuous. This would be more than enough to deal with, but the new wife is the deeply snobbish (and darkly secretive) Hyacinth. Thwarted love, scheming ambition and small-town gossip underlie the warmth, irony and brilliant social observation which link the relationships and the inevitable conflicts as profound change comes to rural England. The most mature and rewarding of her novels, Wives and Daughters places Elizabeth Gaskell in the first rank of English authors.

About Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was born in London but grew up in the north of England in the village of Knutsford. In 1832, she married the Reverend William Gaskell and had four daughters and one son who died in infancy. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848 and won the attention of Charles Dickens; most of her later work was published in his journals. Among her notable works are the novels North and South and Cranford, as well as her famous biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on April 10, 2020

This 1865 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, who also wrote the lovely North and South, is a pleasant but rather leisurely and lengthy tale of the personalities that inhabit an English country town in about the 1830's. The novel centers around Molly Gibson, the quiet and somewhat passive, but deeply sensit......more

Goodreads review by Katie on October 25, 2018

[Review on second reading] I have no words for how much I love this book and how thoroughly impressed I was on this reread. It is an incredible, beautiful, poignant, subtle novel, and an absolute must-read. [Review on third reading] I have to say this is fast becoming one of my absolute favourite novel......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on May 11, 2016

Do you like fairy tales? Well Gaskell certainly did: "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......more

Goodreads review by Lucy on December 19, 2019

Whilst Wives and Daughters isn't my favourite Elizabeth Gaskell, I loved the insight in to 19th century domestic life, especially the customs, relationships and descriptions of rural living. Our heroine, Molly Gibson, is unassuming and quiet, yet has an inner steely determination and steadfast values......more