Wives and daughters. Gaskell E.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) is one of the most famous “literary ladies” of Victorian England, author of the novels “Krenford”, “North and South”, “Wife and Daughter”. The latter remained incomplete due to the sudden death of the author; The final part of the novel was added by the journalist and writer F. Greenwood, based on the instructions of the writer herself regarding the plot and interchange. The novel is recognized as the peak of Gaskell. By the definition of Henry James, it has a “minimum of the head”, a cold game of mind and rationality, so it causes a “sympathetic response from everyone, without exception”.

The sparkling humor and silent irony, which each page is permeated, are discharged with the finest stylistic virtuosity. Before us is a panorama of a typical English provincial town of heyday of the Victorian era with all its comic characters and ridiculous conventions, cozy tea drinks and techniques in the count of estate, and flour of unrequited love. Before us is a panorama of human feelings, enclosed in a double frame of strict Victorian virtue and the author’s endless faith in the triumph of good.