Wives and Daughters

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Wives and Daughters
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Elizabeth Gaskell
Edited by Pam Morris
Introduction by Pam Morris
Notes by Pam Morris
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:720
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreClassic fiction (pre c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780140434781
ClassificationsDewey:823.8
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 30 May 1996
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

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.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Gaskell was born in London in 1810 but spent most of her life in Cheshire, Stratford-upon-Avon. She married the Reverend William Gaskell and had four daughters by him. She worked among the poor, travelled frequently and wrote for Dickens'smagazine, Household Words. Elizabeth Gaskell was friends with Charlotte Bronte and consequently went on to write her biography. Pam Norris is Reader in Literature at Liverpool John Mooores University

Reviews

"No nineteenth-century novel contains a more devastating rejection than this of the Victorian male assumption of moral authority." Pam Morris