Wives and Daughters

When seventeen-year-old Molly Gibson’s widowed father remarries, her life is turned upside down by the arrival of her vain, manipulative stepmother. She also acquires an intriguing new stepsister, Cynthia, glamorous, sophisticated and irresistible to every man she meets. The two girls begin to confide in one another and Molly soon finds herself a go-between in Cynthia’s love affairs – but in doing so risks losing both her own reputation and the man she secretly loves.

With its lively depiction of the gossiping community of Hollingford and its richly drown female characters, Elizabeth Gaskell’s last novel – considered to be her finest – demonstrates an intelligent and compassionate understanding of human relationships.

This text is based on the 1866 Cornhill Magazine version of the novel.

It also includes notes on the textual variants between this edition and the original manuscript, a note on the story’s ending and an introduc tion discussing the novel’s challenging investigation of themes of Englishness, Darwinism and masculine authority.