Book Review: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Look at me, I's readin' my classics again! Ms. Gaskell is on tour for the Classics Circuit, which gives me a very good excuse. For other stops on the Gaskell tour, check the Classics Circuit blog.

North and Southare as different as night and day, or at least that is what Margaret Hale feels when her family is unexpectedly uprooted from the beautiful, warm south of England to a northern manufacturing town, Milton. Her first impressions are to scorn their dirty, cold way of life, but she soon learns more about the town and the people, in particular Mr. Thornton, a mill owner whose ambitions and strength of character have made his fortunes. Can she overcome those initial reactions to understand and even love the North?

Things I Liked:
Oh, I am such a sucker for the love stories! I guess I'm a romantic at heart, because the love story in here was just beautiful. But, it is so much more than that. I love the writing, especially the way Gaskell expresses things so beautifully like feelings and emotions of all kinds of different people. They feel like individuals with very different personalities and reactions. I love how Margaret changes slowly, she doesn't just instantly think the North is awesome and love the people. The characters she meets and interacts with slowly change her opinions. I just gotta admit that I haven't read much of anything written today that can quite capture life the way Gaskell and Austen and Dickens could. I loved this quote, because it struck a chord with me:

"There are days wi' you, as wi' other folk, I suppose, when yo' get up and go through th' hours, just longing for a bit of a change - a bit of a fillip, as it were. I know I ha' gone and bought a four-pounder out o' another baker's shop to common on such days, just because I sickened at the thought of going on for ever wi' the same sight in my eyes, and the same sound in my ears, and the same taste i' my mouth, and the same thought (or no thought, for that matter) in my head, day after day, for ever." p.136

I also loved this little phrase that kind of sums up much of what Gaskell tried to portray:

"Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm." 233

Things I Didn't Like:
Sometimes the dialect for Darkshire people was difficult to follow. I had to read it more carefully and slowly than other parts. I was also really annoyed by Margaret's parents being so indecisive and also not very concerned with her feelings - she pretty much takes care of everything and they often forget about her. This quote shows a bit of what I got mad about:

"It was astonishing, almost stunning, to feel herself so much at liberty; no one depending on her for cheering care, if not for positive happiness; no invalid to plan and think for; she might be idle, and silent, and forgetful, - and what seemed worth more than all the other privileges - she might be unhappy if she liked. For months past, all her own personal cares and troubles had had to be stuffed away into a dark cupboard." p.344

Read-alikes:
It definitely felt like a Dickens novel, describing the way poor people lived, like Oliver Twist
And the story felt a bit like Pride and Prejudiceby Jane Austen

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
several scattered throughout

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: ->
some minor incidents

Overall rating: *****

For those of you who have seen that excellent BBC version of North & South do you think Mr. Thornton rivals the BBC Colin Firth portrayal of Mr. Darcy?

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