Wives and Daughters

Molly Gibson is a small-town girl in England during the 1830s, kind-hearted but unwise in the ways of the world. Her widower father sends her to stay with the aristocrats of Hamley Hall, where she befriends both of the family's sons, learning the elder's dark secret while falling in love with the younger. But her father has remarried in her absence, and in addition to a selfish and ambitious stepmother, Molly has acquired a stepsister who quickly becomes a rival for the younger Hamley's affections.
Molly's strikingly realistic coming-of-age story, recounted with humor and pathos, depicts the consequences of both good and bad marriages as well as the dynamics of changing relationships within family. Elizabeth Gaskell develops timeless themes of friendship, love, money, and tragedy amid a portrait of a rapidly changing Victorian world. Her richly drawn characters and their preoccupation with social behavior and moral issues provide thought-provoking entertainment in the manner of Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and George Eliot.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–65) was a major Victorian novelist whose works have provided readers with endless enjoyment and social historians with enormous insight into English life in the mid-19th century. Her major works include Cranford and Wives and Daughters, in addition to the first biography of her fellow novelist Charlotte Brontë.

I.   THE DAWN OF A GALA DAY
II.   A NOVICE AMONGST THE GREAT FOLK
III.   MOLLY GIBSON'S CHILDHOOD
IV.   MR. GIBSON'S NEIGHBOURS
V.   CALF-LOVE
VI.   A VISIT TO THE HAMLEYS
VII.   FORESHADOWS OF LOVE PERILS
VIII.   DRIFTING INTO DANGER
IX.   THE WIDOWER AND THE WIDOW
X.   A CRISIS
XI.   MAKING FRIENDSHIP
XII.   PREPARING FOR THE WEDDING
XIII.   MOLLY GIBSON'S NEW FRIENDS
XIV.   MOLLY FINDS HERSELF PATRONISED
XV.   THE NEW MAMMA
XVI.   THE BRIDE AT HOME
XVII.   TROUBLE AT HAMLEY HALL
XVIII.   MR. OSBORNE'S SECRET
XIX.   CYNTHIA'S ARRIVAL
XX.   MRS. GIBSON'S VISITORS
XXI.   THE HALF-SISTERS
XXII.   THE OLD SQUIRE'S TROUBLES
XXIII.   OSBORNE HAMLEY REVIEWS HIS POSITION
XXIV.   MRS. GIBSON'S LITTLE DINNER
XXV.   HOLLINGFORD IN A BUSTLE
XXVI.   A CHARITY BALL
XXVII.   FATHER AND SONS
XXVIII.   RIVALRY
XXIX.   BUSH-FIGHTING
XXX.   OLD WAYS AND NEW WAYS
XXXI.   A PASSIVE COQUETTE
XXXII.   COMING EVENTS
XXXIII.   BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS
XXXIV.   A LOVER'S MISTAKE
XXXV.   THE MOTHER'S MANŒUVRE
XXXVI.   DOMESTIC DIPLOMACY
XXXVII.   A FLUKE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT
XXXVIII.   MR. KIRKPATRICK, Q.C.
XXXIX.   SECRET THOUGHTS OOZE OUT
XL.   MOLLY GIBSON BREATHES FREELY
XLI.   GATHERING CLOUDS
XLII.   THE STORM BURSTS
XLIII.   CYNTHIA'S CONFESSION
XLIV.   MOLLY GIBSON TO THE RESCUE
XLV.   CONFIDENCES
XLVI.   HOLLINGFORD GOSSIPS
XLVII.   SCANDAL AND ITS VICTIMS
XLVIII.   AN INNOCENT CULPRIT
XLIX.   MOLLY GIBSON FINDS A CHAMPION
L.   CYNTHIA AT BAY
LI.   "TROUBLES NEVER COME ALONE"
LII.   SQUIRE HAMLEY'S SORROW
LIII.   UNLOOKED-FOR ARRIVALS
LIV.   MOLLY GIBSON'S WORTH IS DISCOVERED
LV.   AN ABSENT LOVER RETURNS
LVI.   "OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, AND ON WITH THE NEW"
LVII.   BRIDAL VISITS AND ADIEUX
LVIII.   REVIVING HOPES AND BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS
LIX.   MOLLY GIBSON AT HAMLEY HALL
LX.   ROGER HAMLEY'S CONFESSION
    CONCLUDING REMARKS [By the Editor of the "Cornhill Magazine."]

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