Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Victorian novel readers were obviously especially fond of the Marriage Plot, because book after book features a young couple who readers almost immediately know are bound to fall in love, encountering obstacles along the way to finding a happy marriage. Most often the obstacles concern money or a disparity of social standing. Sometimes, as in this novel, the obstacle is a third person who initially fascinates and charms before revealing undesirable character traits. From the first, the reader anticipates a favorable outcome, trusting that the good people will overcome the less worthy people and adverse circumstances to end up together. Thus, a reader does not feel totally cheated to find that, unfortunately, Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly with one chapter of this novel left to write. She had cleared up all the problems and just needed to write the happy ending, and it is easy to imagine the conclusion, even without the notes added by her editor.

The love triangle consists of the sweet and unselfish Molly, her beautiful and charming step-sister Cynthia, and the dependable and intelligent neighbor Osborne. Gaskell resists making Cynthia the nasty villain, instead portraying her sympathetically, as being flawed by a lack of loving and wise upbringing. In fact, Gaskell treats all her flawed characters kindly, even Molly's self-centered step-mother.

This novel is often compared to Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, and one can see echoes of Austin's Mrs. Bennet in Molly's less-than-intelligent and selfish step-mother. But Gaskell's tone is not nearly so acerbic or so sharply humorous as Austin's. More clear similarities exist between Wive and Daughters and Anthony Trollope's Dr. Thorne, particularly in the portrayal of the relationship between a father and daughter and in the general tone of sympathy and gentle irony. It even compares favorably with George Eliot's Middlemarch for Gaskell's skill in delineating character.

Somehow, even feeling sure from the first that the ending will be happy does not keep Wives and Daughters from being a compulsive read. It is delightful.