Wives and Daughters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. When Mrs Gaskell died suddenly in 1865, it was not quite complete, and the last section was written by Frederick Greenwood.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story revolves around Molly Gibson, only daughter of a widowed doctor living in a provincial English town in the 1830s.

Molly's mother died many years earlier, and Molly has been raised by her father and servants. As the story opens, she goes to visit a much grander family, the Hamleys at Hamley Hall. There she finds a mother substitute in Mrs. Hamley, who embraces her almost as a daughter (but who dies not far into the novel). Molly also strikes up a shy friendship with the Hamley's younger son, Roger. Molly is of course aware that, as the daughter of a professional man, she would not be considered a suitably genteel match for either of squire Hamley's sons.

Meanwhile, Molly's father abruptly decides to remarry, less from inclination than from a perceived duty to provide teenage Molly with a chaperone and the blessings of a (step)mother's advice. The usually dutiful Molly has a stormy relationship with her social-climbing stepmother, but she immediately hits it off with her new stepsister, Cynthia, who is about the same age as Molly. The two girls are a study in contrasts: Cynthia is far more worldly, and more openly rebellious, than the naive and slightly awkward Molly. Cynthia has been educated in France, and it gradually becomes apparent that she hides secrets in her past.

Mrs. Gibson tries unsuccessfully to bring about a marriage between her daughter Cynthia and Osborne Hamley, the heir of Hamley Hall. In fact, it is the younger son, Roger, who falls in love with Cynthia, and Cynthia accepts his proposal, though she insists that it should remain a secret until Roger returns from an extended trip to Africa. Meanwhile, Molly struggles against her growing love for Roger and discovers that Osborne, like Cynthia, has secrets of his own.

Illness and death at Hamley Hall bring some secrets out into the open and shroud others in even deeper mystery. Molly feels the world is out of joint and it is up to her to set it right...