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Having exhausted Austen for the time being and seeing that Cranford was funny and touching I began reading the Wordsworth Classics edition of Wives and Daughters. For about 300 pages I was thinking this is really good but at about page 385 nothing seemed to be jelling so I put it down for a few days only to start again at the end to find that the author died before she had finished. There was enough to go on however so that wasn't a big problem. The problem is that the really sad husband/wife relationship was never developed (did I miss it?)I would really advise anyone to read Wives and Daughters:In Half the Time instead of this. Normally I would not want to read a condensed book. For Instance, Thackeray's Vanity Fair must be read in all of its 743 page glory.But see the movie Vanity Fair (first?) The long one.
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I am three-quarters through Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (Hard Press Edition) and am enjoying the unusual narration style. The omniscient narrator reads the thoughts of all characters except those of Cynthia. The narrator, perhaps giving a reflection of the author's views, seems to be gently mocking the Victorian mindset, styles, concerns, and customs of the characters. The English country setting in the small village of Hollingford, probably about 1830, gives background to the mimicked mannerisms and foibles of the wealthy or indolent or want-to be's and provides an implausible counterbalance to today's frenetic world. It actually is a relaxing read for a summer's evening.
Gaskell was a personal friend of the Brontes and wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte. A very minor
character "Miss Eyre" appears as a governess to Molly Gibson, the young lady protagonist. Rosalie L'Ecuyer, Fairbanks, Alaska
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I have seen this novel recommended to lovers of Austen, but they may find themselves disappointed. Mrs. Gaskell was of an altogether different era than Austen, and compared to the latter author's lightness and elegant wit she downright oozes Victorian ponderousness. The story is a fairly simple one, revolving around a mere handful of characters, and hardly bears protraction to around 600 pages.
A scheming, hypocritical stepmother tries to secure one of the sons of the local, impoverished squire for her own daughter, Cynthia. The younger son falls in love with the frivolous girl, but then sets off on a long scientific expedition to Africa with only a vague engagement settled, and Cynthia strangely indifferent to his adventures. Her stepsister Molly, meanwhile, is the one who has real feelings for him; she is also the one who soon delves beneath all the surfaces and discovers why the eldest son of the squire wasn't interested in marriage, and which secrets govern the whimsical behaviour of her stepsister. The marital ups and downs of Molly's father, a country doctor, and the occasional interference by the local grandees and the town gossips provide secondary plot material.
The outcome is a foregone conclusion, looming large at an early stage - though ironically we never actually reach it, as death whisked the author away before she could pen the final one or two chapters. Her editor wrote an afterword revealing the unravelling of the plot as already sketched out by Gaskell.
It takes some stamina to arrive there. After the very first half, the narrative starts to drag, making obvious points over and over again, and deluging the reader with obsessive detail. Once Osborne Hamley's secret and fate have been revealed, it seems as if the author is groping her way towards the predictable end, not sure how to get there. Her predilection for inserting pedantic literary and biblical references at every turn also grows tiring soon enough (and makes an annotated edition a necessity).
Despite all that, there is a general sense of charm; nor can it be denied that there are several well-rounded and believable characters in this book, squire Hamley and the new Mrs. Gibson the most successful among them (the former truly endearing, the latter, however, eventually degenerating into stereotype). For those with a taste for (upper) middle class life in 19th century in England this will hold interest, but I find it hard to believe in this novel as a work of genius, and it certainly doesn't compare favourably to major works by Austen or George Eliot.
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I love this story. For anyone that likes Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre. This is in a similar vein but less intense. Very good read and video.
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With its fairy-tale beginning ("In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house . . ."), the subtitle of Wives and Daughters is gently ironic. While the basic plot is standard--boy and girl meet and overcome many obstacles, including themselves--Gaskell's tale is as much about the quickly changing Victorian world as about Molly Gibson and her provincial village of Hollingford.
Set before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters consciously brings together England's aristocratic past, represented by Squire Hamley and the upstart earl and countess of Cumnor Towers, and the future, represented by Molly Gibson and Squire Hamley's sons, especially Roger. The elder son, Osborne, puts his own interests and more modern sensibilities above those of his father, while Roger envisions a future of science, exploration, and expansionism. To Mrs. Gibson, who marries to avoid having to work and dependence on the aristocracy, Osborne offers her daughter an entrée into at least the landed gentry, whereas Roger is merely a second son demeaning himself by dabbling in the sciences. Although renowned in London for his travels and discoveries, Roger becomes worthy of her notice only when he is taken into the inner circle of Lord Hollingford and the Towers as a result of his personal achievements.
While the visible action takes place within the small circle of Hollingford, Cumnor Towers, and Hamley Hall, Gaskell encompasses the widening world of rural England. Cynthia attends school in France while the Hamleys are off to Cambridge. The Hamley home is filled with relics from India, while Lady Harriet advises the Miss Brownings on how to obtain the best-priced Indian tea. Cynthia returns from her jaunts to London fashionably dressed and with hints of admirers, while Roger comes back from Africa browned, bearded, and mature in aspect and mien. Even villagers like Miss Hornblower feel the pull of the larger world and the new technology. As Mr. Gibson tells Molly, " . . . if these newfangled railways spread, as they say they will, we shall all be spinning about the world; 'sitting on tea-kettles,' as Phoebe Browning calls it."
The spheres of the sexes are vastly different. Clare Kirkpatrick thinks "how pleasant it would be to have a husband once more; some one who would work while she sat at her elegant ease in a prettily-furnished drawing-room." Even as Mr. Gibson thwarts the advances of Molly's very first suitor, he tries to keep his "little goosey" unprepared for anything but life under the protection of a man, either father or husband. He advises her governess, "Don't teach Molly too much: she must sew, and read, and write, and do her sums; but I want to keep her a child, and if I find more learning desirable for her, I'll see about giving it to her myself." As men of science, he and Roger believe themselves to be dispassionate and rational, yet Molly senses their obvious mistakes before they do and that they are more deeply affected than they appear to be. Gaskell's characters, however, do not follow stereotypes. Lord Cumnor, a garrulous gossip, and Squire Hamley, an openly emotional man, are "womanly" in their ways, while Lady Cumnor and her daughter, Lady Harriet, are models of independence and detachment. Rather than assert her own independence and risk upsetting her excitable, patriarchal husband, Mrs. Hamley wastes away, ironically depriving her husband of her management of his emotions and their expression.
Molly is raised to suppress her feelings. As Mrs. Gibson's values clash with those of Mr. Gibson and Molly, he is able to ride off and immerse himself in his work, while Molly can only swallow her emotions or, as a last resort, hide them in solitude. There is hope, however, that Molly can avoid the life for which Mr. Gibson is preparing her, that of an obedient wife. Her life as companion to Mrs. Hamley shows her impressionable mind the folly of pride and the lasting harm it causes as it separates Mr. Hamley and his elder son. Her natural curiosity and intelligence, consciously discouraged by Mr. Gibson, are encouraged by Roger Hamley, who bridges the ancient Hamley past and the future of science and discovery. This future will be built on achievements, not family name, which makes young Osborne's parentage significant only to traditionalists like the squire and Mrs. Gibson. Their vision of the possibilities never extends beyond their own desires and concerns.
In Wives and Daughters, Gaskell addresses myriad issues important to her and her contemporaries--medicine, science, marriage, the family, gender roles, monetary wealth and land wealth, rural mores, the perception of English heritage and strength and French decadence, exploration, and change. Her characters are so richly drawn that the reader begins to anticipate Mrs. Gibson's "infinite nothings" and Mr. Gibson's searing irony. Gaskell imbues some of them with an enticing air of unsolved mystery. What are Mr. Gibson's origins? Who was Jeanie, his very first love, and why did he not marry her? How does that and his other early relationships influence his behavior toward Molly? Why, at age 28, does Lady Harriet refuse a good match and seemingly scorn romance? Gaskell does not judge her characters--even Mrs. Gibson has redeeming qualities--nor does she reveal all their secrets. Wives and Daughters is an enlightening, captivating, and, despite its unfinished state, satisfying look at Victorian life and society, the influence of which is still felt.