Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
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Wives and Daughters
Penguin Classics

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell, Pam Morris

Narrator: Laura Aikman

Unabridged: 26 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/03/2020

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Laura Aikman. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Pam Norris.

Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries a new stepsister, Cynthia, enters Molly's quiet life. Loveable but worldly and troubling, Cynthia's arrival alters Molly's daily life. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.

Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society

(P) Penguin Audio 2020

About Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was born in London but grew up in the north of England in the village of Knutsford. In 1832, she married the Reverend William Gaskell and had four daughters and one son who died in infancy. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848 and won the attention of Charles Dickens; most of her later work was published in his journals. Among her notable works are the novels North and South and Cranford, as well as her famous biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie on June 02, 2025

[Review on second reading] I have no words for how much I love this book and how thoroughly impressed I was on this reread. It is an incredible, beautiful, poignant, subtle novel, and an absolute must-read. [Review on third and fourth reading] I have to say this is fast becoming one of my absolute favo......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on April 10, 2020

This 1865 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, who also wrote the lovely North and South, is a pleasant but rather leisurely and lengthy tale of the personalities that inhabit an English country town in about the 1830's. The novel centers around Molly Gibson, the quiet and somewhat passive, but deeply sensit......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on May 11, 2016

Do you like fairy tales? Well Gaskell certainly did: "To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a......more

Goodreads review by Lucy on December 19, 2019

Whilst Wives and Daughters isn't my favourite Elizabeth Gaskell, I loved the insight in to 19th century domestic life, especially the customs, relationships and descriptions of rural living. Our heroine, Molly Gibson, is unassuming and quiet, yet has an inner steely determination and steadfast values......more

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