reading right now

 I am (almost exclusively! Unusual for me!) reading on "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell.

(I knew her originally as "Mrs. Gaskell" - I guess that's how she originally published as, and some of the older reprints of her books have that). 

It's a very long story, especially considering it was serialized in a magazine.

I like it. I'm maybe 1/4 of the way in. It mostly revolves (at least at this point) around Dr. Gibson, the physician in a semi-rural English town, and his daughter Molly. Dr. Gibson is a widower, and at first it's okay: he's a reasonably good father to his child (whom he affectionately calls "Goosey,"), he has "help" who assist in her raising (she has what is fundamentally a governess). The first tiny bit of the book is her as a child (and I admit I'd have liked that part to have been longer); the part I'm in now, she's grown up to 17 (But still seems very young to me! I remember being 17, I was all but an adult, getting ready to go off to college). 

Unfortunately, Dr. Gibson takes in "boarders" (actually: apprentices) to both help with his workload and pay some of the bills. I say "Unfortunately" because young Mr. Coxe apparently becomes infatuated with Molly, which is simply unacceptable (in part because of her age). Dr. Gibson comes to realize that perhaps he should remarry; a step mother could help protect Molly when he is off making house calls and serve as a buffer and a reminder to the young men that Molly is little more than a child.

While he tries to figure it out, he sends Molly away to a family he knows and likes, the Hamleys. The Squire is a nice enough (if somewhat bluff and potentially irritable) man, his wife is an invalid who comes to love and depend on Molly's company, and Molly likes her. (They also have two sons close to Molly's age who are away at school; I would not be surprised if the younger one winds up as Molly's husband; he seems a much nicer man than his older - and placed to inherit everything, and his mother's darling - brother)

Unfortunately, as we're learning, he chooses....unwisely. Instead of taking one of the two pleasant-enough spinsters (a pair of sisters) to be his bride - who would be someone known well to Molly - he chooses a widow, "Mrs. Kirkpatrick" (who had been the governess to the grand family of the neighborhood years back; Molly knows her from a somewhat disastrous party she was invited to as a girl). 

The new Mrs. Gibson turns out to be demanding, and shrewish, and not-understanding that her husband's duties to his patients come first. She forcibly redecorates the whole house, spending a lot of money (And discombobulating Molly, who lost furniture that had come from her mother, whom she barely remembered). And she's kind of mean to Molly, for example,prohibiting he from going back to the Hamleys right away because of a party she intended to take Molly to - but the Hamleys had SENT for her, as Mrs. Hamley was close to death and simply wanted Molly to sit with her. I guess all that is designed to telegraph how self centered Mrs. Gibson is.

(And I admit, these two facts of the story disappoint me a bit: I wanted to like the new Mrs. Gibson but I cannot. And I am irritated that a sympathetic character and one who was good to Molly is apparently going to die). 

There's also Mrs. Gibson's yet-unseen daughter, Cynthia - away being educated in France. She wants Molly and Cynthia to be friends - but I have my doubts, given how Mrs. Gibson is.  

Apparently two other things about the novel - it was left unfinished when the author died; and I see that apparently the ending is a "summary" another writer fleshed out to give some closure. And there was a television production of it - which I've never seen but might want to some time after reading the novel.