North and South

by Elizabeth Gaskell

Other authorsDorothy Collin (Editor), Martin Dodsworth (Introduction)
Paperback, 1986

Status

Available

Call number

823.8

Collection

Publication

Penguin Classics (1986), Paperback, 544 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: North and South draws on Gaskell's own experiences of the poverty and hardship of life in the industrial north of England. Her heroine, Margaret Hale, is taken from the wealthy south by her nonconformist minister father, to live in a fictional northern town. The stark differences are explored through Margaret's abrupt change in circumstance, and her sympathetic reaction to the plight of the northerners. She comes into conflict with a local mill owner who proposes marriage to her. The two undergo a series of misunderstandings and changes of heart before they are reunited..

User reviews

LibraryThing member baswood
A socialist tract, a paean to capitalism, a Victorian love story, a bildungsroman, or a realist portrayal of life in mid nineteenth century industrial England. This very wonderful novel is all of these things; what it is not is a novel about the divide between the North and the South, but this
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title was suggested by Charles Dickens whose own novel Hard Times had just been published. Hard Times a novel also concerned with working conditions was not one of Dickens's greatest achievements and lacked the breadth of vision that Mrs Gaskell achieved with North and South.

Mrs Gaskell's original title was Margaret Hale and her novel charts Margaret's course from a well born but impoverished parson's daughter to an heiress and part owner of a large textile mill. The novel opens with Margaret staying with her wealthy cousins in London, but after her cousins marriage she rejoins her parent at Helstone a hamlet in the New Forest. She loves the gentle country life, but the family faces a major change when her father must give up his parish over religious scruples and opts to move to Milton (Manchester) the centre of the cotton industry, where he will eek out a living as a tutor. The family find Milton noisy, ugly, dirty and crowded but Margaret is determined to make the best of it for her parents sake. She makes friends with the Higgens family: mill workers and trade unionists while her father becomes a tutor to Mr Thornton a mill owner and captain of industry. Mr Thornton falls in love with Margaret but she is repelled by his hard commercialism and rejects his marriage proposal. The novel charts the bildungsroman of both Margaret and Mr Thornton which must happen before they can reach any kind of accommodation.

The reader of course recognises their suitability and similarity and the outcome to their possible relationship is only revealed on the last page of the novel. Here is Mr Thornton's view of Margaret when he first sees her in some rented rooms:

"but now that he saw Margaret, with her superb ways of moving and looking, he began to feel ashamed of having imagined that it would do very well for the Hales.....Margaret could not help her looks, but the short curled upper lip the round, massive upturned chin, the manner of carrying her head; her movements full of soft feminine defiance always gave strangers the impression of haughtiness"

And this is Margaret's view of Mr Thornton when she sees him at dinner talking to his colleague Mill Owners:

"some dispute arose, which was warmly contested, it was referred to Mr Thornton who had hardly spoken before, but who now gave an opinion, the grounds of which were so clearly stated that even the opponents yielded. Margaret's attention was called to her host; his whole manner as master of the house, as entertainer of his friends was so straightforward, simple and modest as to be thoroughly dignified. Margaret thought she had never seen him to so much advantage".

Margaret's friendship with the Higgens family which has allowed her to see the suffering of the mill workers at first hand has driven a wedge between her and Thornton:

"Margaret's whole soul rose up against him while he reasoned in this way as if commerce were everything and humanity nothing"

The battle between commerce and humanity, capital and labour is fought out in the factories and mills of Milton and the rhetoric used then is just as relevant as it was in the 1980's when Britain's industry was reshaped under Thatcher's government. Mrs Gaskell guides the reader to a more humanitarian view; the fight between the masters and the men could be ameliorated if only they would take note of what each was saying. Both their livelihoods depend on the success of the industry and if they could find ways of working together then surely it would be to everyone's benefit. This is skillfully reflected in the battle of wills between Margaret and Mr Thornton whose own love story is brilliantly woven into the fabric of the events on the industrial battle ground.

The struggle between the masters and the men is a titanic struggle for power and the hard headed Thornton sets himself against Higgens who becomes a sort of working class hero. Gaskell refuses to take sides as she ensures that both viewpoints are given equal weight. Higgens and Thornton are both proud men but are also honorable men and it is through Margaret's friendship with both of them that at last a dialogue can begin. Mrs Gaskell has Higgens speak in the local dialect which highlights the differences between him and the mill owners but also between him and the Hales family. It is superbly done.

Milton is brought to vibrant life through Margaret's eyes and becomes almost another character in the novel. The smoke and the grime, the rough streets the workers pouring out of the factories at certain times of the day catching Margaret unawares and always ready with some witty comment about the way she looks. Mr Thornton's house is situated opposite his mill inside the factory gates, a large courtyard and a flight of steps is all that separates him from his work. Margaret and her family are horrified by the noise and the industry when they first visit.

Change is the motif that runs throughout this novel. The vibrant trade capital of Milton is constantly changing and at a rapid pace. To succeed in their ventures then the attitudes of the mill owners must change as must the trade unionists. Margaret must adapt to her new situation and Mr Thonton must change his way of thinking if he wants to win Margaret. The people who cannot change must make way and there are plenty of deaths, most of which have repercussions for Margaret. Both her parents die, Bessy Higgens finally succumbs to her terminal illness contracted whilst working in the mills. Mr Bell the Oxford friend of Mr Hale must also depart as his refuge in academia does not fit him for the new commercial world. Margaret's strength of character enables her to deal with all that life throws at her and although she bends she does not break and her experiences in Milton only serve to make her stronger.

Mrs Gaskell's achievement in bringing off this novel should be admired by every reader. The avoidance of sentimentality, her refusal to take sides, her realistic portrayal of industrial conflict and the brilliant characters that people her book all add up to a wonderful reading experience.
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LibraryThing member nittnut
Do you ever read the Introduction to a book and then wish you hadn't? Or not, at least, until you had read the book? The intro in my edition was no less than 26 pages long. It discussed, among other things, the "question of rebellion: how far is the individual justified in pursuing individual
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freedom of thought or action in defiance of social authority?" This question clearly colored my reading of the story itself.

I was surprised really at how many of the characters of the story were essentially very weak. The strong characters of the book were people we met in Milton - the Thorntons and Higgins. Margaret goes through great trial and struggle, and ultimately does become stronger. She is also supported along the way by many people, though she often seems alone.

The great question of the story regarding defiance of social authority is one we still struggle with today, and probably will forever. The public opinion pendulum swings back and forth between the "workers" and the "masters". I appreciated the way Gaskell answered the question in her story. She pointed out that there are gaps in understanding between the two groups, and that if the masters and the workers could learn to know each other and to work together toward a common goal, it would be better for everyone. Thornton attempts these changes in the end, and when asked whether he thinks his reforms will end the strikes, he says "Not at all. My utmost expectation only goes so far as this - that they may render strikes not the bitter, venomous sources of hatred they have hitherto been." An interesting idea, clearly still in reality, a work in progress.
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LibraryThing member kiravk
Rochester is manipulative, Knightley's a nag, Heathcliff's a brute, and Darcy an occasional snob. But Thorton? Let's review his amiable qualities, shall we? A self made man who takes care of his family, refuses to risk his worker's paychecks, lies on Margaret's behalf even after she's callously
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rejected him and is humble enough to accept assistance from a woman.

The plot in a nutshell: During the English Industrial Revolution, middle class Margaret moves to the harsh northern town of Milton. There, she meets Mr. Thorton, a mill owner with ideas about the world that initially clash with her own.

Given that it was written 150 years ago, you'll need to be in the right frame of mind to wade through some social commentary and slightly archaic language, but the wonderful character development and the first class romance are worth it.
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LibraryThing member veevoxvoom
Summary: Margaret is a vicar’s daughter who has grown up in the south of England, in sunny days and slow hours. However, when her father relocates their family to Milton, an industrial town in the north. Margaret faces culture shock moving from the south to the north, but also finds an unusual
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romance.

Review: I’ve seen the mini-series and enjoyed it greatly, so when I saw a copy of the original book (in an English bookstore in China, no less!), I grabbed it up. My initial reaction to the book was “this is like Pride and Prejudice except with class issues.” But that’s not fair to North and South, which is an excellent book in its own right. Yes, there are similarities to Austen. Headstrong young woman meets standoffish man, he proposes to her, she rejects him, but then she learns to see his true worth.

But there are class issues in Gaskell that are mostly absent in Austen, and this makes North and South its own type of story. In Austen, the characters’ problems revolve around marriage and society, but in Gaskell they face additional events such as illness, arrests, workers’ strikes, and poverty. The scope of events is deeper and more meaningful, and although I am not sure she succeeds to the degree that she would want, Gaskell at least addresses the disparity of life between the south and north, and the injustices that are a part of every character’s life. There is a real sense of world weariness in the writing that suits the plot.

Margaret is not that compelling of a protagonist, unfortunately. She sort of floats along from one scene to another, and the constant descriptions of her beauty grated on my nerves. But Mr. Thornton, ah, he could give Mr. Darcy a run for his money. Mr. Thornton, who rose from poverty to become a manufacturer, who is powerful and intelligent but self-conscious about his lack of genteel breeding — Mr. Thornton, in short, is awesome. He made the book for me.

Conclusion: Yes, it will invite inevitable comparisons to Pride and Prejudice. But it is its own book too with a more critical and nuanced look at class and injustice in 1800s England.
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LibraryThing member allureofbooks
Think Pride and Prejudice is as good as it gets? Think you can't dream up a better romantic hero than Mr. Darcy? Wrong!

Immediately read this, and understand why I would prefer Mr. Thornton over cranky Mr. Darcy any day of the week. He is a gentleman through and through, and his never-ceasing
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kindnesses toward Margaret should be enough to make anyone fall in love with his character.

Also, being able to picture him as Richard Armitage (as in the BBC production of this story) doesn't hurt.

Austen is better at the witty social commentary, I'll give her that. But, to replace that, Gaskell adds in a dash of Charles Dickens in her portrayal of the battle between the mill owners and the working class. It adds a real depth and interest to the story.

Mr. Thornton is a manager of a mill, and even though Margaret Hale is involved with his family socially, she becomes close to the working family of Nicholas Higgins. She sees both sides of the ongoing struggle and eventual strike, and her views change quite a bit as she matures and the book progresses. For that matter, so do Mr. Thornton's.

When you pick up this book, you will quickly become wrapped up in the story. The class struggles will engage you just as quickly as the Margaret/Thornton interactions. Although many people disagree with me that it beats Pride & Prejudice, there is still something for everyone to be found in the plot!
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LibraryThing member bookmagic
Margaret Hale has been educated in London but when her cousin Edith marries, she moves back to Helstone in Southern England, where her father is a vicar. When Mr Hale becomes a Dissenter of Church of England, he gives up his parsonage and moves his family north to the industrial town of Milton
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where he is to work as a tutor.
John Thornton is the owner of one of the local cotton mills and is proud of Milton and its reputation for fine manufacturing and increased industrialization.
Thornton and Margaret clash over their opposing views on the way of life in the slower, wealthier south and the faster, industrialized north. Margaret finds herself sympathetic to the plight of the workers and the poor in Milton. She befriends Bessy Higgins and her father Nicholas, who is a factory worker and union leader. Margaret is frequently in Thornton's company as he and her father become good friends. Thornton falls in love with Margaret but she rejects him as she does not think him a gentleman and that he is only interested in making money at his worker's expense. But Margaret gets an education in Northern ways and starts to appreciate Thornton for the man that he is.

my review: I read North and South after watching the BBC production, after reading about it on Tasha's blog: Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books. Richard Armitage plays John Thornton and he is so sexxxyy!
So I read the book.

There has been some comparison to Pride and Prejudice but other than the relationship, it is not so similar. Gaskell focuses on more of the social aspects with the increased industrialization of Northern England. Margaret is the outsider and Thornton is the insider. Margaret is smart, strong, and independent. She is the one that has to break the news to her invalid mother that Mr. Hale has broken with the church and is moving them up North. She helps her father and many of the poor in Milton. In this way she does remind me of Elizabeth Bennett. Thornton is somewhat like Darcy in that he is headstrong and devoted to his family, but Thornton is not sulky and quiet. He is opinionated but fair.

Gaskell also writes from Thornton's perspective as well as Margaret's. So we know what he is thinking and therefore THERE IS NO NEED FOR SOMEONE TO WRITE A BOOK CALLED THORNTON'S DIARY. Just saying.

A blogger compared this book as a mix of Austen and Dickens and I agree with that. It really is an excellent novel that is much more than a love story and really delves into the social aspects of workers versus masters and unions and strikes. Watching the BBC production did not ruin the book for me and it helped to imagine Richard Armitage as Thornton. Yummy! This book is much better than my review and I highly recommend it. I also recommend watching the movie!

my rating 5/5
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LibraryThing member quigui
After having watched and re-watched (and re-watched and re-watched and...) the BBC adaptation of North and South, it was only right that I should read the novel. Mind you, it was something I meant to do since the first time I saw it, oh so many years ago. And after a North and South marathon with a
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friend (until the wee hours of the morning), the book reading was my next step.

So, it was with a solid knowledge of the story and clear favourites among the characters (Oh, Mr. Thornton...) that I started. One of the things that I first noticed was the language and the portrayal of Margaret, the main character of this book. I quite liked Margaret in the series, but on my first acquaintance with her in book form I found her a bit petty and snobbish. I knew she would change, but it did shock me. But petty and snobbish as she was, and much due to the amazing writing of Elizabeth Gaskell, I didn't see her as a thing of the past, she was not simply a character of a book, and outdated at that. In a few pages Margaret was a real person, and wouldn't be at all out of place in our days. And the same could be said about the writing. Not old fashioned at all, and together with the characterization of Margaret, I could forget this was set in the 19th century.

Enter Mr. Thornton, who in the series is beautifully portrayed by Richard Armitage and I thought couldn't get any better. Well, I was wrong. For, something that is less common in the books that are written nowadays, in North and South we can see both actions and feelings (and thoughts) of all the characters, not just the central one. John Thornton, who to Margaret is a stiff, unfeeling master of the North (and in trade *shock, gasp*), when shown to us in the company of his family and friends proves to be an intelligent, honest and fair man, even if he is set in his ways. Really, the man has his faults, like everyone else, but all in all, he a fine man.

Amidst the struggle of a factoring town, of poor conditions to workers, whom Margaret befriends and helps, and the heavy hand (and sometimes sneaky) of the masters, of talks of strikes and a lot of death (seriously, Mrs. Gaskell, was there need for so many?) there is a love story between these two. Not without its bumps (it couldn't be that simple, now, could it?), but it was fun to follow it, even if at times it broke my heart (poor, poor, Mr. Thornton).

But back to the struggles of the poor. Even if in the case of the Higgins, Margaret's working friends, I prefer their TV counterparts (especially Bessie, who isn't so fervours in her religion on screen), I liked that part of the story. It was a look into the past, of the hardships of those who had to work in conditions that would undoubtedly kill them, and how the priorities of life were different from those of Margaret, for instance.

There are, of course, a couple things on this book that I wish that would be different. First, towards the end, when Margaret leaves Milton, much of what happens there stops being told, and I kept wishing to know how those left behind fared. And second, the ending. Oh, it is a very good ending, that made me laugh. But could I please have another chapter? Just a tiny little one? Please? Because I want more!

Summarizing (or not really): a very good book, a classic no doubt. I loved the writing (so much that I could only follow this book with another one of Mrs. Gaskell), and the story. Read this book, and watch the series. Both totally worth it.

Also at Spoilers and Nuts
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
This is a Victorian novel without any attempts to pace the exciting bits. It just plows ahead with plot, no pauses at all to drink tea or write a letter. If you've watched the BBC mini-series (and if you're reading this novel now, it's because you spent a few hours watching Richard Armitage stare
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off into the middle distance in a brooding sort of way, let's not pretend otherwise) you'll be familiar with the events of the novel. What is surprising is how closely the television adaptation follows the novel. With the exception of Bessy, who is rather cloying in the novel but a caustic breath of fresh air in the mini-series, the characters are on the page as they appear on screen.

Despite the way Gaskell keeps things moving along rapidly, she doesn't fail to create a cast of memorable characters. In this novel, the parents are a lot. Mrs. Thornton reacts to the world around her with a prickly defensiveness which is understandable given that her husband lost their money in a foolish bet, then committed suicide, leaving her to eke out a living for her two small children. But understandable doesn't mean that she isn't a hard person to be around. And the Hales, Margaret's parents, are both weak and whiny. And yet their children love them deeply and also manage to have become the kind of people who animate their morals with action, so that Margaret befriends a working family and sets out to help them in the ways they both need and can accept and Mr. Thornton postures and yells a lot, then works to improve the conditions for his employees.

This novel was clearly intended to illuminate what conditions were for textile workers, but did so with a certain, not unexpected belief in the need for bosses to call the shots. But Gaskell is also pushing against the caste system with her constant theme that men who make their fortunes in factories are the equals of those who inherit theirs and that working men are as intelligent and ingenious as those who supervise them. There are a number of digs at the moral and intellectual abilities of the Irish, I guess proving that humans will always manage to scapegoat somebody.

This novel was a lot of fun and was often hard to set aside and I'm sure I'll revisit it soon.
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LibraryThing member Kplatypus
Margaret Hale, daughter of a country curate driven by a struggle of conscience into giving up his living and moving to a Northern manufacturing town where he takes on work as a tutor, features as the unusual heroine of this novel that combines aspects of a typical Victorian romance with a critique
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of the labor system of nineteenth century England. The story follows Margaret as she returns home from living with her well-to-do relatives only to learn of her father’s decision to relocate, a decision that has far-reaching consequences for all members of the family.

Margaret is an atypical heroine in that, while she does take on all of the womanly duties expected of middle-class daughters at that time, she also comments, at least to herself, on how fatiguing they are, and the reader gets a distinct sense of the frequent unfairness of her position. In other such novels, the heroines are more likely to submit to these duties without a murmur, if they’re “good” characters, or complain unceasingly, if they’re “bad” characters. Margaret’s private weariness is much more believable and sympathetic, allowing the reader to understand her actions more clearly than is often the case. She also has her failings, some of which are very real, which is also less common in Victorian romances. All in all, she’s more real, and more alive, than your usual maidenly, pure, and unearthly Victorian protagonist.

This is not to say that she doesn’t indulge in some preposterously moralistic speeches, because she most definitely does. Some of her little declarations regarding God and truth made me roll my eyes. Still, considering the era in which this was written, I allow for a certain amount of slack in such matters.

For anyone who has read Austen, much will be familiar in this book. In some ways, the romance aspect of the book is very reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, but with less dancing. Other parts, however, reminded me more of a less romanticized version of Dickens’s Hard Times, which I only recently read. The working class in this book is not kept belowstairs; in fact, at least one working class character is even invited in to tea with the old curate, a plot device that readers of Victorian class novels will notice with surprise. There were numerous discussions of why workers strike, what the living conditions of the working class were really like, and what kind of people the workers were. In that sense, this could also be called a social consciousness novel, as the reader is made to understand that these are subjects that the author has thought about often, and believes the reader should think upon as well.

As a random novel, North and South succeeds as a reasonably interesting (if highly predictable) romance, and an interesting look at British class interactions during the nineteenth century. The strength of the novel, however, is that it combines those two usually (at that time) distinct areas, and does so in a way that doesn’t usually feel contrived. All too often the working classes and their problems are used only as a set piece against which the “important” (ie monied) characters act out their parts. Here, however, those working characters play an integral part in the action and are ultimately acknowledged as real people by at least some of the wealthier characters.

Just as Austen’s books are interesting for their insights regarding the society that she inhabited, so too is this book worth reading for its insights into class relations during this era. Unfortunately, Gaskell’s skills as a writer, although solid, are not at Austens’ level, making this somewhat less enjoyable from a purely aesthetic standpoint. If it weren’t for the class observations so nicely intertwined with the romance and family analysis, this would be a fine if unremarkable book. The way that the plot is developed, however, makes this an excellent book for anyone interested in getting a less idealized version of what life might have been like for a middle-class woman in early nineteenth century England.
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LibraryThing member ladytaluka
All right, I just finished rereading this because I'm leading the discussion for book club this month. I originally gave it 4 stars, but I'm bumping it to 5. I really LOVE this book. It's similar to Pride & Prejudice, where the man is in love with the woman and the woman slowly, slowly comes
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around. But this book dealt with more important issues than romance, like social classes and the difference between employment and those who idle away their time because they're rich.

Mr. Thornton is strong, yet tender inside, and completely passionate about Margaret Hale. I haven't read P&P in a while, but I don't think we ever really got to feel what Mr. Darcy was feeling for Elizabeth. Gaskell really does a good job of switching the viewpoints so we can feel how much Mr. Thornton loves Miss Hale. I may not have enjoyed Margaret Hale as much as Elizabeth Bennett, but she was still very strong and took care of things in the family when none of them were strong.

Definitely a must read. And I actually decided to buy it - which is rare for me. (unless I find the book for $1 used) A romance I will continue to read over the years.
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LibraryThing member Smiler69
Is it a love story à la Jane Austen? Is it a social commentary à la Dickens? I'm not sure I've resolved that question yet, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I enjoyed my first experience of an [Elizabeth Gaskell] novel very much. Margaret Hale, has just returned to her parent's house in
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the Southern part of England after having spent several years with her aunt in London. She loves the pastoral setting more than anything, but is wrenched from it very suddenly when her father, the local vicar, experiencing doubt and no longer able to continue his work as a religious figure in good conscience, takes the family to a Northern town—which is the direct opposite of all Margaret has grown to love—where he intends to start anew as a tutor. Once re-installed in Milton-Northern, Margaret must adapt to a world that until then had been beneath her contempt; one of industry and factories and mercantile considerations. But being a gracious and considerate young lady above all, she soon settles in and makes friends and adversaries alike. She's taken a great liking for Bessy Higgins, a young girl slowly dying of an unnamed illness she has contracted from working in the cotton mills. Nicholas Higgins, her father, is one of the leaders of a union which threatens to hold a strike. As an adversary, she has Mr John Thornton, one of her father's pupils, who also happens to be the owner of a local mill, the very same one that employs Nicholas Higgins. Jane Austen would never have written a novel which goes far beyond the conventions of a proper young ladies' sitting room, , even had she lived at the peak of the industrial revolution, though Gaskell might very well have paid her predecessor homage by making Margaret a headstrong, beautiful and independent heroine—a kinder, more thoughtful and much poorer Emma perhaps, who nonetheless experiences great transformations and only finds true love once she's learned many important life lessons. The audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson was a real pleasure to experience.
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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
Beneath Gaskell's social, moral and industrial blathering, beats the heart of a powerful romance; or at least, beat the hearts of two of the most romantic characters I have encountered in a while.

Margaret Hale is at first arrogant and patronising, but matures into a wilful, noble heroine who must
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bear an almost gothic period of mourning in an incredibly brief time. Arriving from the indolent, gentle South, after her rather pathetic father suffers a crisis of confidence, Margaret immediately forms a prejudice against the hectic and polluted 'North', with its 'dark satanic mills', and professes an active hatred for the scruffy, uncouth plebs who dwell there. The fact that she is merely the daughter of 'gentleman' without means doesn't seem to alter her perspective. As one character says, 'she seems to have a notion of giving herself airs; I can't think why'.

But Margaret is young, and sheltered from reality, and the daughter of a delicate lady who married beneath her 'station'; if it is possible to endure the first few chapters in the mellow Hampshire village of 'Helstone', the reward comes when Margaret is toppled from her self-styled pedestal, by circumstance and familial bonds, and grows almost beyond recognition from a shallow, snobbish girl into a humble, generous, if shattered, woman. I went from feeling irritation to admiration, and finally finding Margaret - as is Mrs Gaskell's intention, no doubt - worthy of Mr Thornton's love.

Which leads me onto a hero who, in strength, pride, passion and sheer devotion, is more than a match for any Rochester or Darcy. John Thornton. I fell so much in love with the self-made master from 'Milton' (or Manchester) that the chapter where he visits the ailing Mrs Hale with a gift of fresh fruit, soon after Margaret's rejection of his heartfelt proposal, almost had me snivelling on the bus to work! He is absolutely fascinating, almost 'two chaps in one body', as Higgins describes him - the strong, silent millowner facing striking workers with grim determination, but also the loving son, who pulled himself and his family up after the suicide of his father, to make a name and a fortune for himself, yet who isn't too proud to seek a cultured polish to his lacking education and deal with the 'common man' as an equal. The charged dialogue - and silent gestures - between Mr Thornton and Margaret are far more erotic than any love scene (and these two only manage one kiss in the whole book!) John Thornton is now one of my favourite literary heroes, but it's because of his love for Margaret - from their first proper meeting, when he watches with rapt attention how she fidgets with a loose bracelet, to the brave, almost painful moment when he declares how he feels. These two are drawn, and belong, together, which is the true mark of soulmates in fiction.

The only failing I found with this novel is the ending - for me, the climax is to be found early on in chapter 24, after which the tension slowly dissipates among grand speeches and prolonged misunderstandings. Although I could appreciate Margaret's love for her brother, and the gloomy landscape Mrs Gaskell paints of 'Darkshire' (or Lancashire), all that really holds this story together is the attraction of opposites between Margaret and John. I enjoyed reading every scene with him, and found Margaret an inspiring Victorian heroine (once she grew up), but the thrill was in the chase. I was gripped through every chapter, abandoning another book to concentrate on this story, and savouring both historical fact and dramatic device - only to disappointed by the standard 'reversal of fortune' in the final pages. Why must a strong hero be brought down before the heroine is permitted to return his love? Wouldn't the union of two equal partners, in status and personality, be more exciting than the powerful woman stooping to raise up her man? I can understand why Gaskell and other female authors might have been tempted to redress certain social inequalities of the Victorian era in their writing, but John Thornton deserves more than the same old treatment. The long-awaited resolution between John and Margaret makes me wish that someone would write a sequel, however lacking, for this novel, but their playful words also seem rushed. Mrs Gaskell was apparently under pressure to complete her story, and I share what must have been her frustration at the result.

Engrossing, educational, evocative; witty in places (especially droll Mr Bell), and bitter in parts, 'North and South' is a novel of changing moods and times. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member Mercury57
Like her contemporary Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell wanted to expose the human consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Where Dickens sought “to take the rooftops off” in Dombey and Son to show the disease and suffering caused by the relentless pursuit of the capitalist enterprise, in
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North and South, Gaskell focused on the response of one individual when confronted by poverty and suffering. The result is a blend of genres – a combination of Bildungsroman with Victorian industrial novel.

Gaskell’s protagonist Margaret Hale is jolted out of her pastoral background when her vicar father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience and moves the family north to the mill town of Milton (a psuedonym for Manchester). Margaret’s physical journey to this new region brings about an awakening about the poverty and suffering experienced by the mill workers. Her preconceived ideas about industry and trade, born from her experience of Southern ways, are gradually relinquished as she deepens her friendship with some of the worker families.

She begins with an acute sense of class divisions and distaste of anyone involved in commerce.

I don’t like shoppy people. I think we are far better off knowing only cottagers and labourers and people without pretence….. I like all people whose occupations have to do with land…

But through her growing friendship with the vocal workers’ leader Nicholas Higgins and his gentle daughter Bessy, her sense of class is destabilised. Instead of the socially superior attitude with which she arrives at Milton, she begins to align herself with the workers, to challenge mill owner John Thornton about their conditions and to transgress the accepted boundaries of her class by speaking the language of the working class. Rebuked by her mother she retorts:

If I live in a factory town, I must speak factory language when I want it..

Her transgression is complete when she intervenes in a violent scene where she intervenes in a violent scene between John Thornton and a mass of striking workers. In using her body to shield him she steps out of the conventional private and domestic sphere for women, turning herself into an object for public scrutiny.

It’s in the stormy relationship with Thornton, a self made man, that the book shows Gaskell’s concept of how individual feeling fused with social concern can become an agent for change. Margaret refuses to accept his explanations of the relationship between owners and workers which dehumanises the latter by the reductive term “hands”. Under Margaret’s influence and the collapse of his business Thornton learns to treat his workers as individuals and to adopt a more paternalistic attitude towards their welfare.

Their exchanges are at times somewhat tedious (Dickens himself was very uneasy with some of the discussions), as are some conversations with Bessy Higgins as she lies dying from consumption and contemplates the afterlife. I found the use of dialect hard to digest also.
But those are minor points of criticism and don’t distract from my feeling that this was an engaging book.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
The North and South of the novel isn't American, but English, although there are some interesting similarities. As depicted in this mid-19th Century novel, in the south of England are the "aristocratic counties" and largely agricultural. Margaret Hale, the novel's protagonist, is from that rural
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south in Hampshire, near New Forest with its ferns and trees and songbirds. She's of a "good family" from one of the "three professions"--her father is the vicar of a small village.

When her father becomes a "schismatic" who can no longer subscribe to the beliefs of the Church of England, he resigns his living and Margaret is uprooted with her family to the industrial north of Milton (really Manchester according to editorial notes), for which she has a deep disdain. To her a wealthy manufacturer such as John Thornton is nothing but a "tradesman" like the neighborhood butcher, and very much her social inferior. For much of the book, she treats him with far less respect and more social snobbery than his workers.

A lot of what I found unexpectedly fascinating is the balance with which Gaskell treats the captains of industry and the striking workers--neither group come across as caricatures, but people. It's hard not to place your sympathy with the workers struggling to feed their families. Nor does Gaskell obscure the hazards of their work. Margaret befriends a girl, Bessie Higgins, who is dying because she worked carding cotton, and the fibers damaged her lungs--and the novel makes clear that the manufacturers knew the dangers and could have taken steps to avoid them. Bessie's father Nicholas is determined to gain better for workers through the Union--and without violence--understanding how that can discredit him. He's an admirable figure without him (or his daughter) ever being sentimentalized in a Dickensonian way.

At the same time, there are hints that the workers of that north are better off than those of the south Margaret left behind, making this a rare nuanced depiction of the industrial revolution. In the south the Hales found it easy to hire domestics. In the north, they find the mills give workers better pay and more independence and find it impossible to find anyone. Margaret notes the homes and food on the table of the northern industrial workers are better than that she knew in the south and their agricultural work far more debilitating. In the very fact of the strike there's a demonstration of the power of the factory workers that is completely missing in the south, where it would be unthinkable. The industrial workers are far less deferential and better educated. And Thornton's arguments and reasoning for how he acts as he does towards his workers aren't straw men, nor is he a Simon Legree or Ebenezer Scrooge. The debates between him and Margaret about his responsibilities towards his workers are far from dry--the novel feels strikingly relevant today.

And Thornton is personally appealing from the beginning--more so than Margaret through the first volume of the book. He's a self-made man who had to leave school young to work in the factories when his father died, knew poverty, and rose on his merits--although that in itself gives him an attitude that poverty is a result of character defects and that anyone could do as he did. He is quietly kind to the Hales from the beginning despite Margaret's rudeness to him, and quietly intercedes for them with their landlord without their knowledge. He's brave--standing up to a mob out for his blood. And he early on falls for Margaret who feels nothing for contempt for him. In this industrial Pride and Prejudice, Margaret is the one who has a surfeit of both towards John.

Some might be put off by the style, which can take some getting used to if it has been a while since you've read Victorian literature. It's told in omniscient, with a wealth of literary allusions (the footnotes in the Norton edition I read this in was very helpful there) and quotations, usually of period poetry, head each chapter. The pace is er...leisurely at times. There's lots of the Northern working class dialect conveyed in tedious to read phonetic spelling and apostrophes, untranslated foreign phrases, loads of exclamation points and rhetorical questions, overuse of the word "languid" and its permutations.

I admit I greatly prefer Austen to Gaskell, because Austen manages to serve her social commentary with a humor and light touch Gaskell utterly lacks, and Gaskell sometimes is heavy-handed in religious content and moralizing not even Mansfield Park can come near matching. Nor is the arc of the romantic relationship as well-developed as in Pride and Prejudice. All in all, though, I found I preferred Gaskell's style and characterizations to what I've read of Dickens--and Gaskell presents a wider world in social strata and issues than Jane Austen. I found this an outstanding, thought-provoking novel, worthy of being shelved with Austen, Bronte and Dickens.
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LibraryThing member lit_chick
The Hales are uprooted from Helstone, their country home in Devonshire when Mr. Hale’s religious doubts prompt him to defect from the church. Milton, the bustling northern mill town to which the family relocates, is the exact opposite of the lush paradise that was Helstone. To Margaret Hale,
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everything about Milton is disagreeable: the smoke, the dirt, the landscape, the manners, the wallpaper. She finds Mr. Thornton, her father’s pupil and local mill owner, particularly disagreeable: his manners are coarse, and his education decidedly non-classical. When labour strife breaks out in Milton, Margaret forges a friendship with the Higgins family, and finds herself in a position to help bridge the social divide between mill masters and the working class – or more particularly, between Mr. Thornton and Nicholas Higgins. Before long, of course, she is surprised to find herself unable to “control this wild, strange, miserable feeling” (Ch 39). And Thornton, equally distracted, rides the bus out to the country where he finds himself wandering around besotted! (Indeed, he gives a run to the hotness that is Mr. Darcy!)

Part love story and part social commentary, I thoroughly enjoyed North and South, and will explore more of Gaskell’s work. Highly recommended!

“We should understand each other better, and I’ll venture to say we should like each other more.” (Ch 51)
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LibraryThing member Eamonn12
This book is a great read, thus fulfilling the most important aspect of any novel. The heroine is beautiful and intelligent, the hero handsome and serious-minded, their first meeting unpropitious. She thinks he is rather beneath her. He thinks she is affected and a snob. Things don't improve any
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time soon… Jane Austin? No. Elizabeth Gaskell.

Mr Thornton (our hero) is the crie de coeur of Victorian moralists (and moralistic novelists) whose remedy for industrial strife and the alleviation of the terrible living and working conditions of many people was a 'change of heart' on the part of the factory owners. If they would see their workers as more than just mere 'hands' or items of labour expenditure, then they would treat them properly, with dignity, pay them well & etc. Thornton starts off as a fairly typical factory owner whose only interest in his workers is that of their being the material by which he can make profit. His view changes as the book progresses and I do not want to spoil the story by saying any more.

Margaret (our heroine) is given fairly strong characterisation and her hot temper and straightforward honesty are well drawn and save her from becoming just another beautiful heroine caught in a dreadful situation. She is a genuinely interesting character, realistically drawn. And here I have to say that, even though I am a dyed-in-the wool Dickens enthusiast, Elizabeth Gaskell has created a female character much in advance of The Master. His heroines are, for the most part, simply insufferable whiter-than-white, or blacker-than-black-but-white-underneath-it-all cardboard cut-outs. There are some marvellous creations of course, such as Miss Havisham, but they are very often so weird that she cannot possibly be seen as fully human.

North and South is a novel of the Two Englands, the pastoral, refined south, and the industrial, coarse north. The contrast between the two is well drawn, somewhat exaggerated, but exaggerated for the purpose of driving home how much a class difference there was between the peoples of either area. You really do feel the difference when the chapters bring you from one part (the rural) to the other (the built-up city). This is a novel attempting to come to terms with the Great Divide and to offer a way forward for the betterment of the working classes, but without revolution.

To say that many of the issues raised in this book in the area of 'industrial relations' are still relevant today is to say no more than that there are certain issues in 'industrial relations' which are perennial and long-lasting. One does not have to be a Marxist to know that an employer's aim is to make profits and that this is done by keeping costs down as much as possible and with little regard (if any) for workers. ('A company's first duty is towards its shareholders') And it is also true, everlastingly it seems, that a prolonged workers' strike will usually turn into a vicious internecine row between those who weaken and those who resolve to keep it going. These, and so many other thorny aspects of industrial life are at the core of this book. The 'solution' offered by Gaskelll (and also by Dickens) of a 'change of heart' by the bosses is of course wildly naïve. But short of preaching revolution, what other option was at hand? Even today with our complex industrial-relations machinery for settling disputes, our 'welfare state', and our more enlightened attitude towards workers' rights', we still have our ugly confrontations. It says something about Gaskell's awareness of her age that these issues intrude into what could have been just another Jane Austin heroine landing a good catch. Well, OK. There is a little of the Jane Austins about this novel. But there's a lot of the Stan Barstows too. A true classic and has lost little, if anything, of its relevance to our humankind in the 145 years that have passed since it was written.
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LibraryThing member lauralkeet
North and South was first published in 1854. As was common in those times, it was serialized in a magazine. The title refers to the contrast between the north of England, which is very industrial, and the wealthier, and more agricultural, south. Cultural differences and classism are seen through
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the eyes and experiences of the main character, Margaret Hale. As a young woman of 19, Margaret is transplanted to the north when her clergyman father decides to leave the church and pursue other employment. Margaret is accustomed to a life of relative leisure, and is thrust into an industrial town where textile mills drive the local economy.

In the north Margaret comes in direct contact with poorer, lower classes -- who are typically laborers in the mills. She gains an understanding of working conditions and resulting health issues. She seems to move seamlessly between classes, simultaneously befriending a local laborer and his family, and a wealthy mill owner named John Thornton. Gaskell portrays the lower classes as hard-working, honest folk and the upper classes as haughty and insensitive. Towards the end of the novel Margaret finds herself again in the south, and it is clear her life in the north has changed her world view. She does not enjoy the parties and leisurely pace; in fact, she feels guilty about having these privileges when there are so many who struggle to meet basic needs.

While North and South is an effective portrayal of Victorian England and class differences, the pace was a bit slow and the plot, predictable. While there is a romantic thread to the story, I did not care enough about the characters to be pulling for a happy ending. Sometimes when reading classics, I find it helpful to consult other sources to better understand the themes. But even that didn't help me much; in the end this book left me a bit flat.
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LibraryThing member nellista
After watching the recent BBC adaptation, I knew I just had to read the book! There is a strong thread of integrity in the book. Mr Hale must stand by his convictions and leave the church, Mr Thornton is his own kind of Master, self made, but not willing to comprimise family or the livelyhood of
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his workers, Mrs Thornton is the strong matriach who will stand by her son through good times and bad, and Margaret believes that her integrity is blemished by a misunderstanding with Mr Thornton. There is also a knock against unlearned assumptions. When first arriving in Milton, Margaret has certain views about the North, which are changed as she gets to know some of the people, but these assumptions remain concreted in her Aunt Shaw and cousin Edith who destain the place and the people. Mr Bell's humerous dialogue is a treat!
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LibraryThing member Petroglyph
If Jane Austen and Charles Dickens’ books had babies, this is what they would be like.

The title refers to the different backgrounds of the main character and her love interest: the idyllic, agricultural English South versus the smoke-spewing, industrialized North, as well as the concomitant
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politics and class distinctions and the societal upheaval that accompanies the power dynamics between them. Most of the plot and subplots of North and South have their characters confront each other over those issues -- in addition to a romance plot, of course.

I found much to enjoy in this one. The main character, Margaret Hale, is one of the main draws: she has a lot of individuality to her, is unafraid to speak her mind, and she bends but refuses to break. Several plot developments or character moments surprised me by not taking the eye-rollingly hackneyed turn I had been expecting. I particularly liked the way Gaskell resolves Margaret’s Great Moral Issue of Having Told A Lie.

That said, my main reference points while reading this book were Austen and Dickens. Compared to Austen, North and South is a more down-to-earth book, concerned with people of a lower class than Austen usually deigns to write about, with a royal helping of sometimes romanticized grittiness of industrialization and poverty: people die, workers’ conditions are dire, diseases are rampant, manufacturers and workers clash violently in strikes. In Austen’s books, the dramatic moments are those in which decisions with big emotional impacts are taken, announced or relayed; North and South pairs those with actual action (albeit brief, and with a decidedly tell-don’t-show quality). Surprisingly, the main characters are even involved in dangerous and illegal activities (harbouring a convicted mutineer)!

Compared to Dickens, it isn’t just the men who get to have character arcs and 3d-qualities: the main characters gives as good as she gets. North and South is less preachy, less anvilicious. It’s more sedate, perhaps, as discussions of the type “who is better: agricultural conservatives or industrial progressives” do tend to resolve in some form of golden mean, but it has a bite to it, and it reads less like a soap opera.

I really liked this one! North and South may at times be less elegantly written, but I felt its avoidance of both Austen’s cheerfulness and Dickens’ soap operas made the whole thing more engaging than much of what I’ve read by either author. I wish I could think more about this book on its own terms, and less in how it differed from Austen and Dickens, but there you go. That constant comparison, though, did make me realise that I think this book stands out more clearly than other books I’ve read from the same period and/or genre. I’ll remember this more distinctly than, say, Mansfield Park or Emma.
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LibraryThing member MickyFine
When her father has a crisis of faith and leaves his position as a parish priest in the lush community of Helstone in southern England, Margaret Hale finds herself transplanted to the strangely foreign community of Milton in northern England. In this bustling, industrial town, Margaret encounters
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the rough and striving John Thornton, a local mill owner, with whom she regularly clashes. In Milton, Margaret develops a greater awareness of the social injustices between the owners of industry and their workers and also discovers that there may be more to her relationship with Mr. Thornton than either of them ever expected.

Gaskell's novel is a fascinating combination of Victorian romance and a contemporary exploration of the social upheavals that came along with the Industrial Revolution. Margaret and Mr. Thornton are both well-drawn characters each with a realistic combination of virtues and flaws. Watching their clashes and growing realization of their feelings is a delight. Interspersed is a narrative exploring the conflict, so associated with the Industrial Revolution, between the labourers and their employers. While Gaskell's views are unlikely to gibe with modern sensibilities, in Nicholas Higgins she creates a character that moves beyond caricature of the lower class and imbues him with emotion, intelligence, and ultimately makes him a sympathetic figure. A great read whether the politics, the romance, or both are of most interest.
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LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
So as noted above, yes – for a long time when I saw the title of this book I thought it was about the Civil War. And I thought it would be too sad to read – so laugh at me now, get it all out of your system.

My friend, Hannah, mentioned Elizabeth Gaskell as a writer who portrayed her strong
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women to be beautiful. Coming on the heels of a Wilkie Collins read, this was refreshing. Collins described his strong women as ugly (even going so far to describe the hair on their faces), but Gaskell’s Margaret in North and South is beautiful, haughty, elegant and everything you could wish for.

When I was reading others opinions on this book I kept noticing a comparison to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and further.. a comparison of Mr. Thornton to Mr. Darcy. They couldn’t be more different, in my opinion. While both have an incredibly strong bond to their family, I actually saw more of a resemblance between Margaret and Mr. Darcy. Margaret had that same turn up of her nose, the same pride that Darcy struggled with through Pride and Prejudice. Although, of course, she was sillier than a man would have been, still – they were very, very alike.

I enjoyed reading the story, I’ll admit. There was quite a bit of drama happening over the littlest things, but mostly I enjoyed the look at the workers unions and the way of business at the time. In Austen’s books we only get a picture of the drawing rooms and the gossip, but Elizabeth Gaskell takes us out of the drawing rooms and into the politics and the poverty. It was that aspect of the book I enjoyed the most.

I’m sure I’ll recommend North and South to friends in the future. It doesn’t quite rank up there with some of my other favorites, but it was enjoyable enough. However, it is not good fodder for discussion unless you really want to dive into the politics. I wouldn’t recommend it for a book club reading.
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LibraryThing member runaway84
I waited sometime after reading this book to figure out what I thought of it, but I'm still not sure. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I think I was subconsciously comparing it to Wives and Daughters, which was my first Gaskell read - and so far, my favorite.

North and South started
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out good enough. With the moving to Milton, the early interaction with Thornton. The subtle arguments between Margaret and Thornton were thoroughly entertaining.

I found that I was comparing Margaret and Thornton to Elizabeth and Darcy, but minus the witty dialogue.

I remember thinking when the riot hit, "Oh! This is getting good!" However, I felt myself getting bored soon after, only picking up when Frederick came home and then dying again soon after.

The dialogue by certain characters made me want to bash my head against the desk. It was excruciating to try to read. I get that they have a thick accent, but egads! And in the second half of the book I felt Margaret became thoroughly irritating, and I can't fathom why.

I'm sad that I didn't love this book, after all the positive, glowing reviews I've heard. Perhaps that's what did me in? I did like it, but it's by far not Gaskell's best work.

I look forward to watching the mini-series, which I feel will be more enjoyable.
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LibraryThing member lisahistory
I do not agree with those who thought that the main female character was weak -- she may have started that way, in her schoolgirl years, but her involvement with the workers in an industrial town is really interesting. The male lead, Thornton, I did not find as interesting -- I never really felt I
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knew him, or why he falls in love with Margaret so quickly. Instead, the strengths of the book are in the understanding of owner-worker conflicts in the 19th century, and their impact on everyone. A great way to learn about early industrialization.
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LibraryThing member OpheliaAwakens
This is not the Civil War North and South that most people are familiar with. This is North and South of England. I like Gaskell's books because they include romance and social commentary. Is the plight of the factory worker similar to that of the poor farmer in the country? Do the mill master's
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have a duty to take care of their workers or is paying them sufficient? And as in Pride and Prejudice, will Mr. Thornton ever get together with Margaret? In truth this book is basically Pride and Prejudiced rehashed except for a little more depth of character for the two main players. There is a BBC mini-series of this book which is also amazing.
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LibraryThing member infjsarah
North and South has been on my "must read" classic list for a long time and I finally got around to it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've seen the BBC series from a few years ago so I knew the main plot points. But I was never bored - although the number of deaths especially at the end was a bit of a
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downer! And the final sentence made me laugh out loud - even if it does seem to end very abruptly there.
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Language

Original publication date

1855

Physical description

544 p.; 7 inches

ISBN

0140430555 / 9780140430554

Local notes

The Penguin English Library

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