Wives and Daughters

First issued in 1864-1866 and left just short of its closing pages, this novel follows Molly Gibson, daughter of a country doctor in a provincial English town. After her father remarries, she must share a household with a managing stepmother and the charming, secretive stepsister Cynthia Kirkpatrick. Molly is drawn toward the scientific Hamley family at the local hall, while Cynthia's entanglement with the land agent Mr Preston threatens scandal. Gossip, class, and the narrow choices open to women shape the plot. The book is a domestic novel of courtship and family, not a medical chronicle.

Colour frontis plate. Blue/gold patterned boards with a dark blue slipcase.