Wives and Daughters By ELizabeth Gaskell

THis is the last novel by Mrs Gaskell, and her best. It covers the years not long after the Napoleonic wars, when there were massive social changes. It's set in a small country town, (based on Knutsford where Gaskell grew up). Molly Gibson lives with her widowed father, who is the local doctor. Dr Gibson is a Scot, and a clever man, whose practice ranges from Lord and Lady Cumnor, the aristocratic landlords of the area, down to the poor of the countryside. He is interested in science and is friendly with Lord Hollingford, Lord Cumnor's son, who is also fond of studying scientific questions... Molly is nearly 17 when her father finds that she has an admirer, one of his apprentices, Mr Coxe. He begins to worry about how to look after her, now that she is old enough to attract men. He sends her for a visit to the local squire, Mr Hamley, a good natured farming landlord who does not have much money, and has a devoted wife. Mrs Hamley is lonely and in poor health so she is glad of Molly's company... but the squire worries as they have 2 sons who are at the age when they might fall in love with a girl. The 2 sons are Osborne, who is poetical and thought to be very clever, and Roger who is more interested in science and natural history which is not as highly thought of, at the time. Mr Gibson decides to remarry, to provide Molly with someone to look after her and take her into local society. He is doing well, but he's not considered the equal of the local gentry, and it's hard for him to find a suitable wife. All that is available are farmers' daughters who are not ladies, and landowners' daughters, who would not marry a mere country doctor. He meets Hyacinth Kirkpatrick who has a small school, on the Cumnor estate. She is a widow, who used to be a governess to the Cumnor girls, and then left to get married. She is not well off, but is a lady and suitable to marry a man of the professional classes. She has a daughter, Cynthia, who is at school in France, learning to be a governess. Hyacinth is a silly selfish woman who does not care much for her only child and is eager to remarry and not to have to work. Dr Gibson does not see her faults at first, and is willing to have Cynthia in his home, living on the small income she has from her father..... Molly does not take to her new stepmother - she can see that the woman is silly and thoughtless and has little real feeling for anyone but herself. She is fonder of Mrs Hamley and visits her, as her health declines.