Wives and Daughters

By: Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson

When her father remarries, the honest, innocent Molly Gibson suddenly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, worldly and impetuous. This would be more than enough to deal with, but the new wife is the deeply snobbish (and darkly secretive) Hyacinth. Thwarted love, scheming ambition and small-town gossip underlie the warmth, irony and brilliant social observation which link the relationships and the inevitable conflicts as profound change comes to rural England.

The most mature and rewarding of her novels, Wives and Daughters places Elizabeth Gaskell in the first rank of English authors.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2003 Elizabeth Gaskell (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks

Lovely Story

I really enjoyed the story. The reader had a great range for all the men and women's voices. I was less than enthused with her Lady Comner and Dr. Gibson. I thought the former's speech impediment went in and out and the latter's Scottish brogue was too faint for American ears. All in all beautifully read and acted. I especially enjoyed Squire Hamily of Hamily. Very well realized. Lots of passion.

Wonderful Story

Love it and couldn't wait each night to listen! Better than watching the movie. The great detail was wonderful!

Excellent Narration

Patience Tomlinson superbly read this book. Sometimes I wondered that it wasn’t more than one person reading. It couldn’t have been more delightful to listen.

Loved

Sad to hear she died before she finished the book but it was magnificent book

A Masterpiece - I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Patience Tomlinson is as fine a narrator as Juliet Stevenson or Davina Porter ever thought of being. I don't know why her talents are being wasted on mediocre chapter books. Except for a few works on history, she is kept working reading ephemeral junk.In this wonderful novel, she sings in French and replicates a couple dozen voices of both sexes and all ages and a range of social ranks and geographical origins. For one of them, it sounds like she was holding her nose! For the high-ranking lady, she takes on a twirpy mispronunciation of ordinary words. She is a howling old man whose son has died. She is a weeping toddler who fell down an incline. She brings the story to life! I'm not a Brit, but I loved and appreciated every bit of it.

And this novel must surely be Ms. Gaskell's masterpiece. Yes, it's about bonnets and petticoats and who is marriagable and how much money they have. It's about sipping tea in drawing rooms, leaving calling cards, and the seeming silliness of early 1800's England that we know from other novelists. It is also about the finest details of conversation, putting people at their ease, smoothing things over, twisting the truth, running guilt trips on others, calling attention to oneself -- in short, all the same features of "social intercourse" that challenge us today. Last week I was bullied, demeaned and contradicted in a church knitting group, my hometown called the armpit of the country and all as sweetly as could be. Never mind that I can knit circles around the others, how do I attain peace and possibly put this nasty woman in her place without making the other sweet Christian ladies uncomfortable? It's a puzzlement! And the same things were going on two centuries ago with huge subtlety.

Gaskell gives us a sweet and bright heroine with a widowed physician father who is also bright and loving. She gives us some interesting people in the nearby town -- two families in large houses and quite a few struggling gentility. Then the physician remarries. The new step-mother has a daughter of her own, also a teen-ager and very beautiful and also loving. But the new step-mother must be one of the most irritating, one of the nastiest women in all literature. A second listen only points up how masterfully Gaskell handles this character. I wanted to say, "Oh, shut up!" And Gaskell uses this character's blathering to build suspense. We want to say enough of all that, what is going on with . . . ?

There are love stories and weddings in the book. Gaskell points up the difference between being physically attractive -- slim and well-dressed, nice on the surface -- and being truly kind, dependable, hard-working and intelligent. Our heroine is very bright, curious and caring. She doesn't play dumb, either. This wins her the prize in the end.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

New author to me

I thought this book was fantastic, I'd never heard of the author but she's certainly as brilliant as Dickens, Austen or Brontes, if not more. Her character drawings are SO good, the story line and emotional content of story are completely absorbing. When I first started listening I thought the narrator might be a bit hard to listen to, but it's because she was speaking in the voice of a small child... in fact not only did I quickly get used to that understanding but her voices proved to be a big part of how good the book is. Highly recommend especially for women.

Sooooo good

Patience Tomlinson’s performance was excellent. The sample doesn’t give her abilities justice. E. Gaskell was an amazing talent for her time. Her characters are so real and perfectly imperfect. She masters many personalities and their relationships with one another so well.

times gone by

this is a wonderful book. it Really transports you back too gone by times. the Reader also does a wonderful job. her voice is soothing & calming

as good as the tv series

I was surprised how closely the book followed the tv series, which I enjoy greatly.

I was MORE surprised to find that the author had died before finishing the last chapter. The attached review of the notes and intended ending was enough, but said to miss the authors own words at the end of the journey.

I am becoming a serious fan of this author!

20 Characters, 4.5 Voices

Sorry to say that Ms. Tomlinson can only manage four voices for this broad cavalcade of characters: the whining cartoon mouse, a not quite Scottish horse, the blustery pachaderm, and her own voice in a couple half shades of gray. She also has no sense of tempo, reading at the same jackhammer pace regardless of what's happening in the story. It's to the point of inducincing a bug-eyed hypnosis if you loosen your grip on the story in the slightest. I was worn out after a couple of hours. (I just finished David Copperfield - 35 hrs - so I love investing time in good performances.) This is extremely difficult.