To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.”

Narrator Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

It’s a lyrical work that never fails to sound a chord deep within most of its readers.  We each find ourselves meeting the tale that it tells from our own well of history and experience. And if you are a Southerner - you might hear something more — something deep and searching, familiar and innate.

My first experience with To Kill A Mockingbird was watching the movie as a little girl.  I loved Scout.  I trembled at the thought of the Radley house.  And my young mind grappled inadequately with the courtroom scene and the issues that were unforgettably dealt with there.

But later when I read the book To Kill A Mockingbird as an adult - I found a new and profound respect and appreciation for the quality of word crafting that makes up this work. It is the kind of writing that makes you feel - and it’s nearly impossible to read it without the tense jangling of your nerves or the warm stroking of emotion.

Published in 1960, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and translated into more than 40 languages with sales of over 40 million copies - To Kill A Mockingbird has a solid place in American classic literature and is on countless required reading lists across North America.

Narrated by 6-year-old Scout Finch, the novel’s storyline weaves through themes of racial prejudice, relationships in an old Southern family, societal views of class and poverty in 1930s Alabama and even just the day to day growing pains of children in a small town where they are often labeled by family histories.

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

As the novel progresses, we follow the world of Scout and her family but also the growing obsession that Scout, her brother, Jem & their young neighbor Dill have for a mysterious recluse neighbor, Boo Radley.  

When Scout’s father steps up to represent Tom Robinson, a black man accused of beating and raping a young white women -  we walk through the rocky and multifaceted territory of prejudice, hate, ignorance and fear but with Harper Lee’s skillful writing, we are also able to witness courage and strength of character. 

"Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong … They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee - born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926 - wrote about a world that she knew and people that were familiar.  Her work reveals a South that she deeply loves and yet recognizes in its raw, flawed & damaging prejudices.

Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird in a cold-water NY flat, submitted it to a publisher in 1957 and then spent 2 and a half years in revisions - but upon publication, it received almost immediate acclaim.

The characters in the novel are well-developed and memorable.  As we read - Scout and her brother, Jem somehow feel familiar to us through their struggles, triumphs, lessons and fears.  Atticus Finch - a moral compass of the novel - is a father and a man to be loved and admired —  and has become a famous figure in literature for his strong character and innate kindness.  The Finch family housekeeper, Calpurnia, brings a gentle but firm guidance to Scout and Jem’s motherless lives as she teaches them consideration of others and basic manners.  The innocent playfulness of young Dill - based on Harper Lee’s lifelong friend, Truman Capote - and the other various neighbors who surround them are richly drawn and worth a savor as you read.  This important work manages to skillfully portray both the soft gentility of small town Southern life and the meanness of spirit that dirt-poor poverty can create when unaccompanied by education.

This book is a classic for a reason.  There is plenty of time – start reading!

The Jane Austen Tea Society has happily returned to a study of a Southern classic - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee with a Winter Book Breakfast & Discussion to take place on Saturday the 22nd of January at 10am.

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

“There was not one lord in the neighborhood; no — not even a baronet.  There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door — not one young man whose origin was unknown.  Her father had no ward, and the squire of the parish no children.

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her.  Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.”

Of Catherine Morland, our would-be heroine

Northanger Abbey

As Jane Austen characters go, Catherine Morland has never been a favorite of mine.

Granted, she was an avid reader — a trait close to my heart — but also a dreamer who found herself confusing reality with the lurid gothic novels that were her obsession. 

Catherine was from modest means, one of ten children born to a country parson. She was normally “pleasing” in appearance and only pronounced “pretty” when she was absolutely at her best.

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.”

Northanger Abbey – Chapter 1

However - below Catherine’s unremarkable exterior beat a heart that dreamed wildly of dark brooding mysteries, untamed heroes and dungeons filled with… well, she wasn’t quite sure, having been soundly brought up as a clergyman’s daughter.

But we all know that immense, vivid and unknown worlds open up when you lift the cover of a book.  And if you happen to admire the novels of Ann Radcliffe as Catherine did, you could easily believe that the Abbey that you are visiting might just hold the mysterious “horrors” that haunt your daydreams.

The Jane Austen works Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice were in process and amidst revisions when Jane Austen completed a book that she initially entitled Susan. Written in 1798 – 1799 and revised for the press in 1803, Miss Austen sold this work for £10 to a bookseller in Bath. He allowed Susan to languish on his shelves until 1816 when Jane’s brother Henry purchased it back into their control, with the bookseller woefully unaware that the writer of this novel now had four popular novels released and much admired.

Jane Austen crafted revisions and changed the book title to Catherine after the heroine was renamed.  But after her death in July of 1817, Jane’s brother posthumously published the work later in the year with the title Northanger Abbey as the first two of a four-volume set, which also included Persuasion.

There is a comic lightness to Northanger Abbey but also a serious undercurrent of what may happen when life is lived without realistic awareness and evaluation.  There can be a danger in believing that life is the same as fiction or even in the simple act of believing everything that you hear without first exercising a balanced discernment regarding the speaker or subject.

The Jane Austen Tea Society has happily returned to a study of one of Jane Austen lesser- read works - our beloved Regency author’s works  - Northanger Abbey with an Autumn Book Breakfast & Discussion to take place on Saturday the 23rd of October at 10am.

There is plenty of time – start reading!

“A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.”

Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

Favorite Books of 2020

There were many factors that made 2020 a big reading year for me and I found myself delving into many various genres, which I loved.  Since I share each book that I am reading on social media - I have been asked many times to talk about my favorite reads — so here we go!

Strong Storyline, Character & Plot:

The Chief Inspector Gamache Series - Louise Penny

After a strong recommendation by my smart sister, Carol, I began with the first book in the Gamache series - Still Life - in July of 2019 and very quickly put them into a reading priority, finishing the first 15 books by March of 2020.  The character development in Louise Penny’s books is the strongest that I have experienced in a series since I fell in love with the Harry Potters years ago.  Most of the now 16 books are primarily set in a small Canadian village in Quebec’s Eastern Townships called Three Pines and the overriding hero of all of the books is the Chief Inspector of Homicide for the Sûreté du Quebec, Armand Gamache. Among the many appealing characters that Louise Penny has created for this series, Gamache is the cream of the crop.  He is someone so kind and dependable, so loving and respectable — that you find yourself reading each book - in some ways - just to know him better.  But there is so much more to these books. They have a sense of place that is very pleasing (you seriously want to live in Three Pines and eat at the Bistro!) with well-written & interesting storylines that make you want to sink deeply into your armchair with a big cup of tea and no plans for the evening…. or the month.

The Giver Of Stars - Jojo Moyes

As a longtime book lover - there was so much about this novel that appealed to me.  The writing is wonderfully crafted and draws you into the lives of several women living in Kentucky during the American Depression who devoted themselves to delivering library books to people in the remote, poverty-stricken hills surrounding their small town. Based on a true story, it has the threads of friendship, strength of purpose and love of literature running all the way through it.  And the women are delivering books on horseback — what’s not to like about that?

Once Upon A River - Diane Setterfield

I very much enjoyed the atmospheric quality of this book.  The writing was lyrical, highly creative and a pleasingly effective vehicle to carry the story.  I find that when I read a book, my enjoyment is often carried by whether or not I like any of the characters.  In this novel there were some wonderfully-drawn people that you looked forward to the story touching as their stories and the overall tale wove on.  This novel was like the winding and building of a river and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Deeply Crafted & With A Memorable Writing Voice

Ava’s Man - Rick Bragg

I read this book years ago, but reread it in 2020 as part of a book club choice.  It reads like a novel but in truth is a colorful portrait of Rick Bragg’s hard-living, largely uneducated moonshiner grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, who supported his wife and eight children during the Great Depression by working as roofer, bootlegger, carpenter, general laborer & skilled fisherman who could catch catfish (and even squirrels) with his hand.  Ava’s Man is a book that will make you hungry for cornbread and pinto beans; for catfish and hush puppies and darkly sweet iced tea. You will begin to remember hot, dusty summers and the shock of cold creek water as it closed over your head.  If you are a Southerner , it is easy to find yourself in the well-crafted writing of any of Rick’s works, but Ava’s Man is especially fertile and ripe for remembering your own family history - wherever your origin.  If you subscribe to the popular magazine Southern Living, then most likely you - like me - have yanked the latest issue straight from the mailbox and opened up to the last page to read Rick Bragg’s column, Southern Journal. Anyone born anywhere due south of Maryland will understand Rick’s flavorful, sometimes sobering and always humorous references to life in the South — and if you weren’t born in the South, you will definitely garner a new understanding of the people of the region.

My Reading Life - Pat Conroy

One of my favorite things to do is read — so I especially love to link arms with another avid reader and hear their thoughts, suggestions and particular loves when it comes to books. As a matter of fact - if I see anyone at a coffeeshop or on a park bench with a book — it’s all that I can do not to stop and ask them what they are reading…  But there are two books that I have read that make me realize that I am a dismal lightweight in the Bookworm Hall of Fame.  One of these books is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (I especially cherish the audio version and have it on my iPhone) and the other is My Reading Life by Pat Conroy.  This must-read gives Pat’s thoughts on his most-beloved books, cites references to his well-developed reading habits and scatters his incredible anecdotes along the way. There is something in Pat Conroy’s writing that sounds a deep common chord in me — language that is nearly tactile & vividly sensory. It has the ability to both bring me to tears in one minute and then have me laughing out loud in the next. Every visit that I made to Charleston while Pat Conroy was alive, found me peering about in restaurants or while browsing in Charleston bookstores - hoping to see him.  I wanted so desperately to meet him…. and in this book, I feel a bit as though I have.

Themes That Beckon Us To Be Better People

We Were The Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter

This novel was inspired by the true story of the author’s Jewish grandfather and of his family’s experiences during World War II.  Opening before Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, this work does an excellent job of putting us within a place, culture and time and then taking us on a breathless journey with this extended family.  Through them we gain a better understanding of what Jewish people encountered and suffered during the Holocaust - whether it involved enforced labor in Nazi factories, hiding in people’s homes, hunger, hardship or exile.  And because it is such a well-written book, our emotions and sympathies are drawn in as we follow the expertly-drawn characters. While reading this book, I didn’t realize that it was based on a true story - so was amazed to find that out at the end of the story.  I think that made it even more important a read to me.

Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

Another eye-opening work based on real life events, Lisa Wingate’s novel delves into the lives of children who were separated from their birth parents and placed out for adoption for profit. The author relays the story through the experiences of two primary characters - one living in the late 1930s in Memphis and the other in present day South Carolina. The story is based on the infamous director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, Georgia Tann, who kidnapped and sold children from poverty to wealthy families around the country.  There were moments in the books when I literally held my breath.

Some of these books I purchased and some I picked up curbside at our local library - but I want to use this moment to encourage you to buy from your small local bookstore — it will help them and you will enjoy your reading (and reader supply) purchases!  

Here in Nashville we have Parnassus Books- https://www.parnassusbooks.net.  They have been very proactive in helping us to shop and remain safe during the pandemic.  But I also love to support Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble.  It’s so important to have brick & mortar stores that we can always walk into to hold the books in our hands and ask for recommendations.

Happy Reading in 2021!!!

Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg

If you subscribe to the popular magazine Southern Living, then most likely you - like me - have yanked the latest issue straight from the mailbox and opened up to the last page to read Rick Bragg’s column, Southern Journal. Anyone born anywhere due south of Maryland will understand Rick’s flavorful, sometimes sobering and always humorous references to life in the South — and if you weren’t born in the South, you will definitely garner a new understanding of the people of the region.

Born into a family of front porch storytellers in the Northeastern Alabama foothills, Rick Bragg was raised primarily by his mother, Margaret.  His father, a Korean War veteran, struggled with alcoholism and domestic abuse, remaining absent for most of Rick’s childhood. Margaret worked hard and sacrificed many comforts (including not buying a new dress for 18 years) to support her three growing sons by picking cotton, taking in laundry for payment and cleaning houses. But what she also gave her boys in the long run was even more sustaining… a deep devoted love for their family, flawed though it may be, and an enduring fondness for her magic in the kitchen.

Rick will tell you himself that his childhood was abundant in both deeply-rooted love and dirt poor hardship.  But all of his combined experiences left him with the wonderful ability to be a full & rich voice of his people - both in Northeastern Alabama and around the South. His insightful gift of language makes reading his works profoundly satisfying.  His gift of storytelling is intimate - sifted through the rough Foothills earth and his personal history of living in the Deep South, lyrical and well-crafted.

“It is easy to be liked when the world has no jagged edges, when life is electric blankets and peach ice cream. But to be beloved, a man needs a dragon.”
― Rick Bragg, Ava's Man

Rick Bragg worked as a journalist for several newspapers before writing for the New York Times and it was coverage with the Times that won him the Pulitzer Price for Feature Writing in 1996.  His honors have also included a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year for 2009 and more than 50 awards for writing over the years.

But it is his books about home, family and living in the South that have so endeared him to his large body of followers.  His trilogy of stories about his family - All Over but the Shoutin’ (1997), Ava’s Man (2001) and the Prince of Frogtown (2008) combine to give a portrait of his mother (All Over but the Shoutin’), his maternal grandfather (Ava’s Man) and his father (Prince Of Frogtown).

Published in 2001, Ava’s Man was Rick Bragg’s own journey to discovering the grandfather he never knew.  To do that, he set out to collect stories.  He laughed and cried with elderly aunts, family friends and former neighbors, listening to their stories and still vivid memories.  When asked in an interview if he put all of his relatives' stories in, Rick stated that there were definitely a few that were withheld from print “so that he would still be invited to their Thanksgiving table”.  He wasn’t going to risk that.


“What kind of man was this, I wondered, who is so beloved, so missed, that the mere mention of his death would make them cry forty-two years after he was preached into the sky?”
― Rick Bragg, Ava's Man

Ava’s Man became a colorful portrait of Rick’s hard-living, largely uneducated moonshiner grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, who supported his wife and eight children during the Great Depression by working as roofer, bootlegger, carpenter, general laborer & skilled fisherman who could catch catfish (and even squirrels) with his hand.

Through the worst of the Depression, his family always managed to have food on the table and fierce protection from a man with a deeply ingrained sense of what was expected and what was right.  He was proud and self reliant.  Wanting to be informed and not “ignorant”, he had his wife Ava read the newspaper to him every day at the kitchen table.

Ava’s Man is a book that will make you hungry for cornbread and pinto beans. For catfish and hush puppies and darkly sweet iced tea. You will remember hot, dusty summers and the shock of cold creek water. Many readers over the years have regaled Rick Bragg with stories of their own fathers and grandfathers that were “just like Charlie Bundrum”.  It is easy to find yourself in the well-crafted writing of any of Rick’s works, but Ava’s Man is especially fertile and ripe for remembering your own family history.

We will visit this contemporary Southern classic with this quarter’s read - Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg - to be discussed over a Spring Book Breakfast on Saturday, March 28, 2020. Give this deep & rich book a read and see if you see a little of your own family through the pages.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

It’s not the highest recommendation for picking up this novel to read - but let’s face it - Mansfield Park probably ranks as the “least loved” of the Jane Austen novels and its protagonist, Fanny Price as the “least interesting” of Miss Austen’s leading characters.  

The characters in Mansfield Park have a long history of initiating great debate amongst readers - both in Jane Austen’s era and in our own.  Readers have consistently found the primary characters in Jane Austen’s first two published novels - Sense And Sensibility and Pride And Prejudice - much easier to relate to and empathize with, unlike Fanny Price and honestly more likable and appealing on first glance. 

We follow Fanny from a painfully shy and delicate 10 year old, who is taken from her impoverished parents and their crowded and noisy home in Portsmouth to live with wealthy relatives, where she is emotionally secluded, dependent and unloved - except for one significant person in her life.

And about Fanny…  Is she really that weak?  Priggish? Even ridiculously timid (at least to our standards)? We tend to find Fanny difficult to relate to -  but is she a heroine in disguise?

As an intelligent, kind, principled and observant young woman - can we see her become a bright role model for standing firm in the face of intense peer pressure? For holding on and continuing to represent the core values that are so vital to her character?  

Fanny Price doesn’t have the daring sparkle of an Elizabeth Bennet or the serene poise of Elinor Dashwood,  but underneath her timid nature there is a firm and unwavering moral resolve that is certainly worth some appreciation.

In her mid-thirties Jane Austen began her 3rd published novel -  Mansfield Park - during February of 1811, finished it sometime after June 1813 and saw it published in July of 1814.  With a closer look we can acknowledge that the work shows the seasoned and refined thoughts of a mature woman, including themes and character development that are deep, multi-layered and varied - albeit not always enjoyable. 

It is important to have a perspective on English society as it existed at the time that Mansfield Park was set to get the full import of names, events, emotions and ideas.  Over all of Jane Austen’s novels, this work may have the most cultural reference to events and actions throughout the novel.  Why were private theatricals such a problem for Fanny? Did this book take any stance on slavery? How was the Church perceived in Regency England? How did Fanny and the other female characters in the novel measure up to feminine standards of the day?

So - if Mansfield Park ranks as “least loved” of the Jane Austen novels. Do you agree?  Would you rate it higher? Does it have the least “modern” viewpoint of all the Austen novels?  Could its commentary on love and marriage end up leaving it an “anti-romance”.

There are no accidentals in Jane Austen’s writing - everything has a purpose.  Mansfield Park is most assuredly worth a close read.

We will commence our 2020/2021 Reading Plan with a revisit to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park to be discussed over a Winter Book Breakfast. Take some time to ponder why the “Fanny Price Controversy” amongst readers. We will be discussing this book on Saturday, January 25, 2020. 

Kim by Rudyard Kipling

“Hearts are like horses. They come and they go against bit or spur.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim


Depending on which way political winds have blown over the years - Kipling has been unanimously praised or fiercely derided for the imperialistic ideas that are undercurrents present in his India-based works.

Was he racist in how he described India’s peoples? Did he hold late-Victorian prejudices that - although commonplace during his time - leave us uncomfortable as today’s readers?


“I have seen something of this world," she said over the trays, "and there are but two sorts of women in it-- those who take the strength out of a man, and those who put it back. Once I was that one, and now I am this.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim


In 2018 students at the University of Manchester painted over a mural of a Rudyard Kipling poem - explaining that they felt that he “dehumanised people of colour” and stood for “the opposite of liberation, empowerment and human rights”.

Rudyard Kipling has written long-loved classics such as; The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, The Man Who Would Be King, Just So Stories and Kim.  Kim will be my first Rudyard Kipling read. I am interested in looking further into this writer and will be on a sharp lookout for just how his writing makes me feel.


“There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim


Born in Bombay, India on December 30th, 1865 - Joseph Rudyard Kipling held a deep and lifelong love and identification with the country and it found its way into much of his writing. Although he was taken back to England by his parents when he was six years old - he strongly identified himself as an an “Anglo-Indian” and had a sense of belonging to India that followed him through much of his life.


“India was awake, and Kim was in the middle of it, more awake and more excited than anyone, chewing on a twig that he would presently use as a toothbrush; for he borrowed right- and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim


Kipling was a versatile, prolific and highly popular writer in both prose and verse during the later 19th and early 20th centuries and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. The prize specifically noted that it was given in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration with characterized the works of this world-famous author.


“Those who beg in silence starve in silence,”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

The novel Kim was first published in serial form in McClure’s Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901, in Cassell’s Magazine from January to November 1901 and first published in book form in October 1901 by Macmillan & Co Ltd.


Kim is widely considered to be Kipling’s best work - his masterpiece. It constantly appears on Best Novel and Books To Read During Your Lifetime lists - and was included on the BBC’s The Big Read poll of the UK’s best loved novels. In many respects it has been greatly loved because of the adventure aspects of the main character - Kimball O’Hara - orphaned son of an Irish soldier and poor Irish mother during the time of the British rule in 19th century India.


But is it pro-Empire? Is it insensitive of the peoples of India? Will the reader of today’s sensibilities enjoy the story or feel disturbed by its themes and descriptions.


“Kim dived into the happy Asiatic disorder which, if you only allow time, will bring you everything that a simple man needs.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim


We will meet to discuss this last book in our current study - Kim by Rudyard Kipling - on Saturday October 19, 2019 over an early Summer Book Breakfast. Clearly - there is a lot to discuss with this next read. Grab a copy and read along with us!

“This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

Wives And Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

“To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl;”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters

Elizabeth Gaskell’s fifth and final novel, Wives And Daughters begins in the small English town of Hollingford in the early 1820/30s and focuses primarily on the bright and loving Molly Gibson. It was first released in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine from August 1964 to January 1866 and released as a book in 1866 by Smith, Elder And Company.

The Cornhill Magazine was a monthly literary journal which peaked in circulation under editor William Makepeace Thackery in the 1860s. It specialized in serializations of new and current novels and articles of interest on many differing subjects to interest the Victorian reader of the time and was a rival publication of Dickens’ All The Year Round. Works included in The Cornhill Magazine included such important novels as Washington Square by Henry James, Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy and Wives And Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.

“I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it was not me.” 
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters

The town of Hollingford was richly representative of a common country community and was based upon the real life town of Knutsford in Cheshire where Elizabeth Gaskell spent her childhood. Knutsford was a place that had provided a wealth of stories and characters for Elizabeth Gaskell, including her much beloved Cransford stories - Mr. Harrison’s Confessions, Cranford, Round The Sofa and My Lady Ludlow.

Gaskell’s Hollingford has a large caste of characters - its respected resident aristocracy in Earl & Countess Cumnor, its respected country doctor, its conservative spinsters and its small shops where news is exchanged and not-so-current fashion items are purchased. The rural life lives closely and comfortably with town life and everyone moves on with the secure sense that others have lived just so for many years before. In Hollingford we have a wonderfully deep and accurate sense of small town life during Victorian times - the old ways versus encroaching change and the class system and its changing sensibilities.

“How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters

There is also much to enjoy in Molly’s story - banter between herself and her country doctor father, her affectionate relationship as a motherless young woman with Mrs. Hamley, the squire’s wife and her eager anticipation of a relationship with a new step-sister. There are also the many moments in life for her that challenge her temper and her best feelings of kindness. This book may be set almost 200 years in the past - but people ring true and current. The language may be more formal. Social mores may be more strict. But there are the same fears and hopes that are familiar to us all. And the pitfalls that beset them are not all that different.

“But fate is a cunning hussy, and builds up her plans as imperceptibly as a bird builds her nest; and with the same kind of unconsidered trifles.” 
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters

Elizabeth Gaskell does what she does best in Wives And Daughters. We have a fertile storyline that touches on the joy of the common person and presents both the kindnesses and oblivious selfishness of the upper class aristocracy and the inter-house competitiveness that they held for each other.

“All sorts of thoughts cross one's mind—it depends upon whether one gives them harbour and encouragement”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters

While writing Wives And Daughters, Gaskell passed away suddenly in 1865 after suffering a heart attack land so she left her last novel as an incomplete work. Gaskell’s editor, Frederick Greenwood - knowing what Gaskell was planning to write - completed the novel. 

There is much to discuss in the lengthy but enjoyable Wives And Daughters. Start reading now! We will meet to discuss this last work of Elizabeth Gaskell on Saturday, July 20th, 2019 over an early Summer Book Lunch.

“Pooh! away with love! Nay, my dear, we loved each other so dearly we should never have been happy with any one else; but that's a different thing. People aren't like what they were when we were young. All the love nowadays is just silly fancy, and sentimental romance, as far as I can see.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives And Daughters