Wives And Daughters

Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centers on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister enters Molly's quiet life, the loveable but worldly and troubling Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford. Wives and Daughters, generally thought to be Elizabeth Gaskell's finest achievement, is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life. It offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society with its main themes of the role of women, Darwinism, and the concept of Englishness, as well as its literary and social context. "I am honored to have had the chance to introduce Wives and Daughters to modern listeners, who I hope will discover what a pearl among novels it is." -- Nadia May, narrator Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), novelist and biographer, was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson in London. She was reared by an aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire, which became the model for village settings in her novels. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister. Her first novel, Mary Barton, published in 1848, was immensely popular and brought her to the attention of Charles Dickens, who solicited her work for his periodical, Household Words, for which she wrote the series subsequently reprinted as Cranford. She wrote novels, short stories, and a biography, The Life of Charlotte Bronte. Nadia May has been nominated as an AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives.