Wives and Daughters

I haven't seen this yet but have gotten thru most of the complete version(though unfinished as the author died before it was completed) Nice story but much too repetitive. This version should do the trick.

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.

'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.

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.

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.