Wives and Daughters

When young Molly Gibson’s widowed father remarries, she gains a stepmother whose shallow ambition and a dazzling stepsister whose beauty and secrets turn the little town of Hollingford upside down. Molly must navigate her father’s new marriage, the eccentric Hamley family next door, and her own growing feelings for the honourable Roger Hamley—who seems destined for Cynthia, the captivating newcomer. With its rich cast of flawed, lovable characters and its sharp-eyed portrait of life in a small English village, Gaskell’s last novel is a masterpiece of quiet drama and earned romance. This modern retelling renders the original in clear, contemporary English while honouring every twist of its intricate plot—the jealousies, misunderstandings, and the tender hope that love might yet find its true course. Part of Timeless Classics.