Wives and Daughters

Rating:
Summary: Wives and Daughters - a woman's book
Review: 'Wives and Daughters' was this month's choice for our book club. We all commented that it took us a long time to read but everyone appreciated the fine writing and skilful characterisation. We found Molly a delight and Hyacinth one of the most delicious 'love to hate' characters. The men in our group thought this was a 'woman's book', well written but too slow and without enough action to interest them. We wanted to know why we call the author 'Mrs Gaskell', when we don't refer to 'Miss Austen', or 'Miss Bronte' We would recommend this as a good read.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, captivating book.
Review: I received this book for Christmas, along with two Jane Austen novels. I read Austen's novels first and I liked them. I have just finished Elizabeth Gaskell's, Wives and Daughters and I loved it! This book portrays the lives of Molly Gibson and her step-sister, Cynthia Kirkpatrick as they grow up in the town of Hollingford. I thouroughly enjoyed this marvelous book and I would recommend it to anyone, especially Jane Austen lovers, for I think they will enjoy Wives and Daughters more then any of Austen's books, as I have done.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: This book portrays the life of young Molly Gibson. Molly is a sweet girl with a good heart, but when her father remarries, Molly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia. Cynthia is quite popular and flirtatious but is very troubled. Molly and Cynthia become good friends though Molly doesn't always agree with Cynthia's actions. This story shows how Molly and her sister grow from girl to woman within the gossiping little town of Hollingford, England.

I decided to read this book after seeing the Wives and Daughters presentation from ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. This book is captivating and touching. It is too bad that Elizabeth Gaskell passed away before finishing the book. But though the novel is incomplete, I still very much enjoyed this book and never regretted reading it. I would recommend that you view the Masterpiece Theatre presentation of this novel because it really helped me to understand the characters better. Overall, this book is wonderful and an enjoyable read.