Customer Reviews

Wives and Daughters

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In her last novel, Gaskell avoided her usual urban milieu to concentrate instead on the wonderful parochial doings of a country village in the mid-Victorian period. Although she left the novel without its very last chapter before she died, this should not dissuade you from reading the novel: you'll know by the end exactly where Gaskell was going to finish the book and what would've happened to all the characters.

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS is frequently compared to Austen, but it is very different; the comedy and social observation is marvelous, but there's a greater sense of despair here more akin to MIDDLEMARCH. Hyacinth is without question the single most complex and engrossing character Gaskell ever created, and despite her menadacity and her manipulativeness you can't help but feel fond of her in spite of her less attractive qualities. Her daughter Cynthia is nearly as fine a character, and the others are also topnotch. A delightful read.

What is up with all the reviews that compare Mrs. Gaskell unfavorably to Jane Austen? Jane Austen is wonderful, but she works in miniature, and even her major characters are often one-dimensional. Who can really visualize Mr. Darcy? It is true that Mrs. Gaskell can be as satirical as Austen when she wants to be, but even her most vain or vicious characters are human beings, with complex feelings and good impulses as well as bad. And then there's the incredible sweep of this novel, the way in which Gaskell manages to portray an entire community without losing her lightness of touch. The only novel I can think of to compare this to is Eliot's Middlemarch, and I'm still not sure which I think is better.

There are so many instances in which Gaskell could have taken the easy way out and didn't. Take the two pairs of characters, Molly and Cynthia and Roger and Osborne. Osborne is thought to be more brilliant than Roger; Cynthia is more beautiful and less moral than Molly. It would be so easy for Gaskell to make Cynthia the evil stepsister, and Osborne the dissolute brother you love to hate. Yet Cynthia and Osborne are both sympathetic despite their faults, and both are even more complex, more finely drawn, than Roger and Molly. There are plenty of novels in which a character exerts a fascination over everyone he/she meets, and usually the fascination is completely lost on the reader. Cynthia has this fascination, and for once it is completely convincing. We understand why Molly can't help loving Cynthia, even while Cynthia is blithely taking Roger away from her. And Cynthia is self-aware; she knows that she can't bear to have people not think well of her, and she knows this is a fault. When Molly has learned Cynthia's secret and risked her own reputation to help her, Cynthia is grateful but cannot keep herself from doing what she always does and drawing away from Molly. Mrs. Kirkpatrick is another beautifully drawn character -- she seems poised at the beginning to become the evil stepmother from a fairy tale, but she is simply weak, vain, and not very bright. She has every intention of being a wonderful stepmother, but she is too shallow and self-centered to enter into Molly's feelings or any one else's. She tries so hard to please, and her panics when she's talked herself into a corner are both funny and pathetic.

I know I've said a lot about Cynthia, but I don't agree with the reviewer who said that Molly seemed one-dimensional in comparison. Molly has fewer problems; she's a pretty normal, intelligent, awkward girl with a happy childhood behind her, but that doesn't mean she's boring. She has a pretty vivid emotional life, although she doesn't always admit the source of her feelings, and she's very shrewd.

I am amazed by the people who said this book needed editing or cutting down. This is probably the most nearly perfect book I have read - I do not mean by this that it is the best - and the one glaring imperfection can't be helped. I do think, though, that if it has to end prematurely at least it ends on an excellent sentence.

Having read and reread Austen and the Bronte sisters, and looking to branch out to new authors while still staying in the general time period and genre, my sister recommended Wives and Daughters. I had never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell---but what a treasure to discover! My husband bought me the book for my birthday, worried that because it was an unfinished novel I would be disappointed. Hardly! I couldn't put the book down. I fell in love with all of Hollingford and its people, especially young Molly Gibson, as constant in her character as Cynthia is changeable but both equally likeable and more importantly, believable. Mrs. Gaskell was able to show us where the novel was headed or, I should say, where Molly was headed matrimonially, and though it is something to mourn that the conclusion could not be written in Mrs. Gaskell's own words, I would still recommend the read. AND the DVD which is so true to the book (Justine Waddell makes a perfect Molly), even while leaving out Molly's extended illness toward the end. Definitely one I recommend.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to any one who wants to read a well written and sweet novel. The principal character is Molly Gibson who is the daughter of a small town doctor. The story is mainly about what happens with Molly and those she loves when her father remarries and his new wife and stepdaughter come to live with him and Molly. The story is simple, but at the same time enchanting. Mrs. Gaskell's excellent writing will keep you reading even though some parts of the story are full with details and past stories of the characters. But at the same time, it is these background stories and details which allow the reader to really understand who each character is in the story and how they feel. So I don't don't agree with those who sugget that the book needs editing.

The novel is full with very interesting characters and all are presented in a way you'll end up feeling close to them, and caring for them. Even Mrs. Gibson and Lady Cumnor, who are mean and selfish, will claim your sympathy at some point because the author has the ability to present her characters not as good or bad, but just as human. She has an incredible way of describing regular people. And only this characteristic makes the book very enjoyable.

The book is long and does not have an ending... nonetheless, it is so beautiful!!!... I really recommend this novel because you'll never get bored. Even more, you'll learn to enjoy each of the things and stories that are going on in Hollingford (the little town where Molly lives)!. And although this is not an "addictive" reading, there are some parts in the novel where you cannot stop reading and for a hundred pages you won't be able to put it down. I think this is a novel to enjoy, not to read in an afternoon.

The fact that this novel is unfinished could be a drawback for some people, but the story is almost complete and you can tell what will happen at the end. Besides, all novels end at one point, and no matter how much the author tells us about the story, we readers always want to know more. So, I think that you can easily imagine what will happen in the last chapter in the same way that you can imagine what will happen with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy at the end of Pride Prejudice (even though Jane Austen never wrote about that).

I agree that there is some similarity between this author and Jane Austen because both authors have the same sweetness in their writing. However, Mrs. Gaskell provides more details about the setting and the characters of the novel. So, all and all I would recommend this novel to the Austen readers and to all of those who enjoy romantic and classic novels.

It's interesting that another reviewer here recommends this novel on the strength of its Austen appeal. Me, I never cared for Jane Austen. But Gaskell's book is subtle and brilliant and amazing on so many levels that a little, Austen-like parody is only another flavor. Molly Gibson's moving through her life and the lives of those near to her is solid in every way that literature must be; yet it is in the stunningly realistic depictions of relations between the characters - her father, her stepmother, her stepsister, the Hamley brothers - that Mrs. Gaskell reveals her genius. She refuses to settle for easy reactions and expected responses. If at times her people suffer a bit from a Victorian eye's love of form, her brilliance will allow for no false note. As absolute evidence we see the evolution of Hyacinth Gibson's role in the family, the desperate wrongness of it, perfectly muted to the compromises life brings forth in all such situations. This single character, vain and selfish, inconsiderate but not monstrous, is as real a human being as I have ever encountered in literature of the 19th century, or this one. I conclude with saying that, having been introduced to this woman's work, George Eliot has had to share her place in my mind as the preeminent female author of that century.

"Wives and Daughters" is a novel of provincial life, set in the small town of Hollingford. Some commentators have identified this with Mrs Gaskell's own home town, Knutsford in Cheshire, but references to the Malvern Hills and to its proximity to Birmingham suggest that it is located further south, probably in Worcestershire. The action takes place several decades before it was written in 1864-65, although the exact time-frame is difficult to determine exactly. Some topical references, such as to Catholic emancipation which took place in 1829, suggest that the book is set in the late 1820s and early 1830s, but other factors suggest a somewhat later date. (The barrister Mr Kirkpatrick is referred to as a Q.C., not a K.C. as he would have been before the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837).

The main character is Molly Gibson, the daughter of the local doctor. Molly is befriended by Mr Hamley, the local squire, and his wife, who see her almost as a substitute daughter (their own daughter having died in childhood). Molly falls deeply in love with Roger, the Hamleys' academically brilliant younger son, but he sees her only as a friend, being infatuated with Molly's stepsister Cynthia. (Dr Gibson is a widower who has remarried a widow with a daughter around the same age as Molly). Roger is a scientific explorer who travels to Africa in search of new species of animals and plants; his character may have been inspired by the exploits of the likes of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. ("The Origin of Species" had been published only a few years earlier).

The book is clearly influenced by the work of Jane Austen (at times it reads like a pastiche), not only in its subject-matter but also in the way in which Mrs Gaskell tries to draw ironical, satirical pen-portraits of her characters. Cynthia, for example, is beautiful but shallow and fickle, and her mother, Hyacinth Kirkpatrick Gibson, is hypocritical, manipulative, conceited and snobbish. Dr Gibson is generally portrayed as a sensible, level-headed man, so it is not easy to understand why he should have taken such an obnoxious woman as his second wife.

The Austen novel with which "Wives and Daughters" has the greatest affinities is "Mansfield Park". In both books the central male character (Roger/Edmund) is the younger son of an upper-class family, overshadowed by a flashier elder brother (Osborne/Tom), but steady, reliable and decent. In both books he is loved patiently and in secret by a quiet, demure girl (Molly/Fanny) but becomes infatuated with another woman, beautiful but flighty and superficial (Cynthia/Mary). In both cases the patient girl's devotion is rewarded with marriage to the man she loves; Mrs Gaskell died before she could write the final chapters of "Wives and Daughters", leaving it unfinished, but there can be little doubt that this is the ending that she intended. Mrs Gaskell left what may have been a deliberate hint that Austen's book was her inspiration; the Hamleys refer to Molly as "another Fanny", that being the name of their deceased daughter.

I have some sympathy with those readers who preferred Cynthia, who for all her obvious character flaws is at least a rounded human being, to the idealised but insipid Molly. (But then, I am one of those who hoped that "Mansfield Park" would end with Edmund marrying Mary rather than Fanny, surely Austen's dullest heroine). Mrs Gaskell seemed to try so hard to make Molly good that she forgot to make her interesting.

Some of the most interesting scenes in the book were those involving Roger's older brother Osborne and his clandestine marriage to a French nursery maid. Osborne needs to keep this marriage a secret because his autocratic father, who has set his heart on a brilliant, financially advantageous match for his son and heir, would not welcome a daughter-in-law who was foreign, a Catholic and a former servant. I felt, however, that this potentially interesting theme was wasted by being relegated to a sub-plot, and wished that Mrs Gaskell had paid more attention to Osborne and Aimee and less to the Roger/Molly/Cynthia triangle.

At well over 600 pages this is a long book, much longer than any of Austen's, being a product of the system of publishing by weekly or monthly instalments, a system which had the effect of inflating by a considerable amount the average length of a novel during this period. Dickens also used this method of publishing, but although he was occasionally guilty of padding his books he was generally able to turn the system to his advantage by producing plots of ingenious complexity and finishing each episode at a dramatic point in the narrative. The plot of "Wives and Daughters", however, is too slender to support such a weighty book, and at times I found it frustrating as the action was slowed down to a standstill by yet another lengthy and discursive conversation a propos (to use a typically Gaskellian phrase) of nothing. (The book was successfully adapted as a TV series a few years ago, possibly because the dramatist was able to keep the basic plot but to prune out the duller passages) There were characters whose appearances I learned to dread, particularly the Misses Browning, a tedious pair of garrulous spinster sisters. Even the satire at the expense of Hyacinth, amusing at first, gradually became repetitive; Mrs Gaskell seems to have lacked Austen's gift for playful irony.

Elizabeth Gaskell is often regarded today as a novelist of the early Victorian industrial North, writing social-realist novels which tackled the problems of poverty, unemployment and labour relations ("Mary Barton", "North and South") and unmarried motherhood ("Ruth"). In "Wives and Daughters" she tried to move into Austen's territory, love and marriage among the provincial upper and upper-middle classes, but my view is that her gifts lay much more in the direction of social realism.

'Wives and Daughters' was this month's choice for our book club. We all commented that it took us a long time to read but everyone appreciated the fine writing and skilful characterisation. We found Molly a delight and Hyacinth one of the most delicious 'love to hate' characters. The men in our group thought this was a 'woman's book', well written but too slow and without enough action to interest them. We wanted to know why we call the author 'Mrs Gaskell', when we don't refer to 'Miss Austen', or 'Miss Bronte' We would recommend this as a good read.

Sadly unfinished, in consequence of Gaskell's death, "Wives and Daughters" breaks off at the end of chapter 60; It is ultimately unsatisfying because of this, even though the fate of the characters is already clearly marked out; it is a major disapointment not to be able to read Gaskell's ending, which she would have done so charmingly!

The whole novel can at any rate be called charming, and comletely captivating to the reader. Elizabeth Gaskell weaves a tale of a small county, full of life and detail and greatness at every turn. The characterization is nearly perfect, in my opinion, and would have achieved a greater perfection had it only been a finished novel. The story is one of the coming of age of Molly Gibson, and in this "everyday story" of every day domesticity, Gaskell follows and captures perfectly the little incidents in Molly's life. The small things that make her happy, the minor tragedies, and her concealed, though very real love for Roger Hamley, which is in fact one of the most realistic and true portrayals of love I have ever encountered in a work of fiction.

This is not a masterpiece, surely, but it is an important last(though unfinished) novel of a very great talent;Elizabeth Gaskell. It is long, but still very readable; and I would recommend it to anyone who is studying victorian literature. There are also great lessons to be learned from it by the aspiring writer. Not to be missed!

I confess that when I got the book I thought I had quite a daunting task ahead of me -- I didn't know it was going to be so thick! However, it was surprisingly easy reading, and I finished it in less than a week. The pace is slow, but not tiring. We really feel for poor dear Molly Gibson, who does her best for others without thinking too much about herself or her feelings. But good things come for those who deserve it, and no one deserves more a happy ending than Molly. It is very unfortunate, however, that Ms. Gaskell passed away before finishing the book. Of course we know that Molly and Roger are perfect for each other and should end up together -- most of the time the end in romantic novels is predictable enough; the getting there is the most important and often satisfying, and of that, we have been deprived. The last few chapters that Ms. Gaskell did write are very sweet, as Roger starts to realize his true feelings for Molly. The fact that Mr. Gibson (who, by the way, is a wonderful character) did not allow Roger to see Molly before leaving again for Africa was certainly a ploy to make the conclusion a little longer, and finish up in a final chapter that never came. And that is a real shame.

I just could not seem to finish this book! It was so long and covered, so much of nothing but a little bit of everything. Very sweet tale, with wit and good taste, I'd wager to say in the same vein of writing as Jane Austen. Yet Jane could tell her tale a bit quicker than this, for such a simple tale of English country life in the 1860's it is. Enjoyable and engrossing, the story is told around the doctors daughter, and the events that occur with her fathers remarriage to a rather shallow former governess and schoolteacher. Molly Gibson, the main character, is an upright citizen and honest soul, after her fathers example. Watch for the predictable love triangle between Molly and her new startlingly attractive stepsister, Cynthia. I was tired of the tedious overuse of the phrase, "tete a tete" but intrigued by several characters. Gaskells characters, such as Lady Harriet and the Sisters Browning, are fleshed out and their personalities pursued with familiarity. Don't you know someone just like Hamley of Hamley, today in 2001? Or maybe the new Mrs Gibson reminds of you of one of your friends? This is what you can look forward to: familiarity and the historicity of all sorts of little tidbits; how "the apple of his eye" was considered a vulgar term, for example. Please read if you are coming off of a Jane Austen high and are desperate; but see if you can find an abridged version, if one exists, for it is sorely needed! PS I got this book to read along with the PBS show currently running. The movie doesn't do it justice, but intrigued me enough to literally hunt for this book! Go for it!