Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Title: Wives and Daughters
Author:  Elizabeth Gaskell, called The Unjustly Overlooked Victorian Novelist by the New Yorker

Setting: 1830s England

Publication:  Oxford University Press, trade paper, 1987 (originally published 1864-66 in serial form)

Genre: Literature

Plot: Molly Gibson is the unassuming daughter of the local doctor in the small town of Hollingford, which is dominated by a Whig family, Lord Cumnor, a wealthy landowner.  The story begins when Molly is invited to a duty-party given by Lady Cumnor for local ladies.  When Molly is overcome by the heat, she meets Mrs. Kirkpatrick, former governess to Lady Cumnor’s daughters, now widowed.  Mrs. Kirkpatrick is running a small school and living on a modest income, and depends on Lady Cumnor for invitations to save on household expenses and allow her to mix with the elite (and boast about it afterward).  She does not make a good impression on young Molly.

Several years later, recognizing his daughter needs some polish, Dr. Gibson asks his favorite patient, Mrs. Hamley, to host Molly for a visit.   Molly is nervous at first but Squire Hamley, his delicate wife, and their two sons become very important to her, especially after Dr. Gibson, thinking Molly needs a new mother, marries Mrs. Kirkpatrick, adding her and her daughter Cynthia to their household, as the stepsisters, close in age, approach adulthood.

My Impressions: I enjoyed Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, which is why I encouraged my book group to choose this for July.   I also was worried that everyone was becoming too dependent on Amazon so wanted a book that was in the public domain for those whose libraries and bookstores were not yet open.   In fact, the Weston, MA library was the first to provide curbside delivery back in June and gave me Wives and Daughters in a 20-CD audio version, which was a little intimidating.   A week or two later I secured the OUP paperback.  Had I realized it was almost 700 pages, I might not have had the nerve to suggest it, but as it turned out, nearly everyone read the whole book.   I also did not know Gaskell died before finishing it, so close to the end that we felt somewhat cheated.

Because neither Molly nor Roger have any of the dimension or appeal of Margaret Hale and John Thornton, I did not find either the story or the romance as moving as North and South.  Molly Gibson is a sweet but dull heroine who is very dutiful to her neglectful father and a loyal friend to her new stepsister but we all felt disappointed by her doormat personality.  Even her ultimate romance seemed like an unequal relationship: Roger prefers her stepsister initially, not recognizing that insecurity has made Cynthia crave the comfort of admiration so she flirts or ingratiates herself to survive, not because she cares for him.   Even when Roger ultimately recognizes his folly and chooses Molly, recognizing her sterling qualities, the reader wonders if it is because her love made her interested in his work and she became an intelligent listener.  And more than anything in this book, one is conscious of the mortality rate in the 19th century.  Even a sound practitioner like Dr. Gibson cannot prevent the many (mysterious or poorly diagnosed) deaths that occur in this book.  One can only hope that his and Roger’s interest in science augurs well for keeping the remaining characters alive!

Margaret Hale has personality and is an independent thinker.  While her pride and lack of knowledge occasionally cause her to misjudge the people and personalities she encounters in the industrial city that is her new home, she recognizes her faults and learns from them, just as the deaths of those around her are apparently intended to provide maturity.  The BBC adaptation manages to capture her growth and appeal without hiding the harsh realities of life.  It is ironic that the Hales seem to be nearly as impecunious as the millworkers yet Margaret still feels the responsibility towards those around her as when she was a minister’s daughter, and visits the millworkers in their cottages.   Molly sometimes provides largesse to those in Hollingford but her stepmother never seems to care about anyone but herself.  It surprises me that anyone would consider Wives and Daughters to be superior to North and South, as was implied in the introduction to my edition.

Those in my book group who had seen it loved the North and South miniseries, starring Richard Armitage as the self-made mill owner; Daniela Denby-Ashe as the proud, well-born girl from the gentler south of England; Tim Piggott-Smith of Jewel in the Crown fame as Mr. Hale, the minister with a conscience; and, surprisingly, Brendan Coyle, who played Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey in a small role as a crusading millworker.  The plan was for us to watch the Wives and Daughters miniseries after reading the book but it was not available on Netflix.  I managed to put it on reserve at the library and it just arrived.

Source: Library