Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192831941
ISBN: 0192831941
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: November 19, 1998
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 191936
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Mary Gaskell's North and South examines the nature of social authority and obedience and provides an insightful description of the role of middle class women in nineteenth century society. Through the story of Margaret Hale, a southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skillfully explores issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers conflicts with her growing attraction to the mill owner, John Thornton. This new and revised expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Will read it again and again!
After having seen the BBC's version of North & South, I couldn't wait to read the book. I wasn't disappointed at all! Although well over 400 pages, the book moved along at a good pace. The characters were all very well developed and very interesting. The best part was that Mrs. Gaskell writes from multiple perspectives rather than from just one POV. It was refreshing to find out just what Mr. Thornton WAS thinking! :-) The charcacters were not so numerous to be confusing, and each one was intersting and well thought out. This book has become another favorite and will be read again and again!
Rating: - An excelent book to any person
You have to get familiar with the characters and then you slowly star to love them all.
At the beggining I felt sorry to poor Mr Lennox,he was a Miss Hale's friend but he took her love for granted and he was rejected by her.
Miss Hale is a nineteen years old girl who has always lived in a confortable way with her parents but some day Mr Hale finds that his faith has change and he can not continue in the church with such doubts and they decided to move to the north of England.
Mrs Hale gets sick because the air and the rhythm or life in such a place is very hard to face however the family find a house where to live and a new way to start all over. They meet Mr John Thornton a mill's owner who wants to become a more educated person learning some literature now that Mr Hale has become a tutor in his new hometown.
The prejudices Miss Hale shows for him at the beggining and the tough way of Mr Thornton made them fell uneasy every time they meet however this are the very things that make them get closer and realize that north and south can not be so different after all and that the things one place lacks can be fulfill by the other place.
It is a masterpiece.I was so glad I bought this incredible good book.
I red it and just want to read it again.
Rating:  - A Botch. Not as Good as the Splendid 2004 BBC Miniseries.
The best thing about Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" may be that it inspired the superlative 2004 BBC miniseries by the same name. In fact, the miniseries was so good the day I finished watching it I began reading Gaskell's novel.
Given its failings, it is miraculous that director Brian Percival, writer Sandy Welch, Martin Phipps, who wrote the score, and the entire excellent cast were able to create such a stunning miniseries out of this less than stellar novel.
"North and South" has its appeal. If you are interested in class relations in Manchester, England during the Industrial Revolution, and the transition from an agrarian culture to a mercantile one, you have to read this book. And, if you are one of us who was stung by the "North and South" bug thanks to the BBC miniseries, nothing will stop you from reading this novel.
But if you are craving a richly worded, expansively populated, nineteenth century novel, by all means read Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, and their fellow English-language writers in America -- Twain, Alcott -- before you read Gaskell's "North and South."
It's a botch. Gaskell's talent shines through, but her need for a good editor is evident on every page. There are obvious errors, such as her giving one character two separate names. Pages and pages of footnotes and explanatory notes are meant to pick up where Gaskell fell short.
Characterizations of the main characters, Margaret and Thornton, are unforgivably ... Read More
Rating: - "brutalised both as to his pleasures and his pains"
North and South is a very ambitious novel, and the fact that it has flaws in the execution do not detract from its successes.
It is, first of all, a social novel. It explores the differences between the industrialized north of England and the older more agricultural life in the south. The characters are all gripped by the hand of change-- changing religious beliefs, changing relationships between master and servant, changing expectations of family life and changing socio-economic conditions. What Gaskell does very well in North and South is forefront these critical themes. Since the novel is also a love story, it would have been easy to use the social aspects of the novel as nothing but pretty backdrop. Instead, Gaskell places it front and center-- to the point where occasionally the relationship between Margaret and John feels like nearly an afterthought. I like the emphasis-- it saves the novel from being a Pride & Prejudice retread. It may, however, account for some of the oddities of pacing noted by other reviewers.
As a reader, I really love the small moments in the novel. There is a wonderful scene when Margaret realizes that her habit of visiting the worthy poor is much less acceptable in the industrial north. She recoils when her offer to visit a sick neighbor girl is seen as condescending and possibly unwanted. That small moment captures volumes both about the character of Margaret and about the world in which she lives.
This is the third book by Elizabeth ... Read More
Rating: - Surprisingly modern tale of class conflict, management theory, and of course, love
I read the book, like many other reviewers here, after I had watched the brilliant BBC miniseries starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. I definitely agree with the comments of many reviewers here that you somehow seem to develop a finer appreciation of the nuances of both after doing that.
A lot of reviewers have covered the ground admirably on the story itself, so I won't go into too much detail on that. In addition to the fine development of plot and characters alike, what I found refreshing about the novel were:
a. Unlike a few other writers of her time, Elizabeth Gaskell focuses a lot more on the thought processes and feelings of the male characters in the novel. For example, you don't get to hear a lot of what Darcy or Edward Ferrars are thinking in Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, except almost tangentially. In sharp contrast, Mrs. Gaskell gives quite a detailed peep into what John Thornton and Richard Hale are thinking, throughout the novel. As someone who is always interested in the differences in thought processes between the sexes, I found this to be refreshingly different from other novels of the time.
b. Being in business, it was quite a new experience to read about John Thornton's evolution first as a business owner and then as a "leader", to use that overused term of today. Mrs. Gaskell appears to have a remarkably sophisticated understanding of both management and labor issues. The examples that stand out in my mind - John Thornton's ... Read More
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