Wives and Daughters is far more than a nostalgic evocation of village life; it offers an ironic critique of mid-Victorian society. No nineteenth-century novel contains a more devastating rejection than this of the Victorian male assumption of moral authority`, writes Pam Morris in her introduction to this new edition, in which she explores the novel`s main themes - the role of women, Darwinism and the concept of Englishness - and its literary and social context.