Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell - anyone else in despair over the unfinished ending?

[ej_author]

I happened to pick up Wives and Daughters at the bookstore recently because I saw it was by Elizabeth Gaskell, and since I enjoyed both Cranford and North and South (the latter especially!), I thought, why not?

I was so sad to find that the ending is unfinished. The introduction to the book (written by some modern scholar or other) promised that it wouldn't make the book feel incomplete, but when I got to the end, it sure felt incomplete to me. It seemed like I'd gone on for 700 pages reading about poor Molly's suffering, only for her to not even get her happy ending written out! (Not Gaskell's fault, of course, but it's depressing nevertheless.)

Has anyone else read the book and felt this way? I'm hoping that one day, someone will attempt to write the last chapter. I've even thought about giving it a go, if only to console myself...