Novel
Wives and Daughters
Elizabeth Gaskell · 1866
Opening lines
To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Hollingford, a small provincial town, before the electoral reform of 1832. Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed doctor, raised by him and doted on by the old maids of the town, learns at nearly seventeen that he is to remarry. The new wife is a former governess of the neighbouring castle, and she brings a daughter of the same age, Cynthia, brought up at a boarding school in Boulogne, whom everyone finds charming. The two girls grow attached to each other. Cynthia has left behind an engagement of which she speaks to no one.
Context
The novel appeared as a serial in the Cornhill Magazine from August 1864 to January 1866. The author died suddenly in November 1865, when only one chapter remained to be written. The editor of the magazine, Frederick Greenwood, added a note in which he reports what was known of the intended ending, and the volume appeared from Smith, Elder in 1866. The BBC made an adaptation of it in 1999, written by Andrew Davies, issued in France under the title of the translation.
Who it is for
A long novel, unfinished by one chapter; translated into French as early as 1868, then by Béatrice Vierne in 2005.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by many critics as the best of her novels, while another remains the most popular.
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