Wives and Daughters

Penguin Classics presents Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Penelope Wilton.
"Eh, miss, but that is a rare young lady! She does have such pretty coaxing ways...."
Seventeen-year-old Molly Gibson worships her widowed father. But when he decides to remarry, Molly’s life is thrown off course by the arrival of her vain, shallow, and selfish stepmother. There is some solace in the shape of her new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, sophisticated and irresistible to every man she meets. Soon the girls become close, and Molly finds herself cajoled into becoming a go-between in Cynthia’s love affairs. But in doing so, Molly risks ruining her reputation in the gossiping village of Hollingford - and jeopardizing everything with the man she is secretly in love with.