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Feb. 3rd, 2013 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyWives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell
I am sure I realised this when I put it on the List, but I had forgotten by the time I came to read this book that it was the last Gaskell wrote, and that it therefore is missing its last few chapters. This is Very Sad, but thankfully most of the plot threads are so clearly in train that there's not much question of what direction they'll end up taking. I do wish Gaskell herself had been able to resolve them - there is, instead, an epigraph from the editor of the Cornhill magazine, which first published the novel in installments, explaining what Gaskell's plans were, but that's not half as good and it's all a bit florid.
I really enjoyed reading this, because it's been an age since I dipped into something so cheerfully dramatic and full of drama. Gaskell's characterisations are also brilliant - there's something nicely balanced about the characters, something very realistic about the natural and unspoiled Molly who tries so very hard to be good but spends a lot of her time wanting to kick things, and the comparison with her step-sister Cynthia, who spent most of her early life in France. Actually, there's an interesting parallel there - Molly grew up motherless because her mother died when she was young, while Cynthia grew up effectively motherless because her widowed mother was too busy trying to earn a living as a schoolteacher and give herself a break from that life during the school holidays to worry much about Cynthia. It's an interesting set of parallels, and you probably don't need me to point out which one is more likely to go to the bad (although, thankfully, she doesn't go all the way).
There is also the subplot of two local brothers with whom the family become entangled, what this means and the general relationship of parents to their children is the broad theme with which Gaskell occupies herself. I can't really say much more than that, really - if you like this sort of stuff, then you'll love this; if dramas of early nineteenth century manners bore you, then don't bother.
I am sure I realised this when I put it on the List, but I had forgotten by the time I came to read this book that it was the last Gaskell wrote, and that it therefore is missing its last few chapters. This is Very Sad, but thankfully most of the plot threads are so clearly in train that there's not much question of what direction they'll end up taking. I do wish Gaskell herself had been able to resolve them - there is, instead, an epigraph from the editor of the Cornhill magazine, which first published the novel in installments, explaining what Gaskell's plans were, but that's not half as good and it's all a bit florid.
I really enjoyed reading this, because it's been an age since I dipped into something so cheerfully dramatic and full of drama. Gaskell's characterisations are also brilliant - there's something nicely balanced about the characters, something very realistic about the natural and unspoiled Molly who tries so very hard to be good but spends a lot of her time wanting to kick things, and the comparison with her step-sister Cynthia, who spent most of her early life in France. Actually, there's an interesting parallel there - Molly grew up motherless because her mother died when she was young, while Cynthia grew up effectively motherless because her widowed mother was too busy trying to earn a living as a schoolteacher and give herself a break from that life during the school holidays to worry much about Cynthia. It's an interesting set of parallels, and you probably don't need me to point out which one is more likely to go to the bad (although, thankfully, she doesn't go all the way).
There is also the subplot of two local brothers with whom the family become entangled, what this means and the general relationship of parents to their children is the broad theme with which Gaskell occupies herself. I can't really say much more than that, really - if you like this sort of stuff, then you'll love this; if dramas of early nineteenth century manners bore you, then don't bother.
