Description

First published in serial form, Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel North and South is an important work about the serious changes in life and society that the Industrial Revolution brought about in England. Margaret Hale and her father leave their comfortable surroundings in the South of England for the grittier and more industrial city of Milton. Margaret is not prepared for the extreme hardship that she finds in Milton. Seeing that the townspeople who work at the local mill are suffering, Margaret resolves to improve their lives. Her advocacy for the workers brings her face-to-face with the mill owner, John Thornton. Sparks fly when Margaret and John meet and realize that they share passionate natures but do not always see eye to eye. Romance blooms between the two people, but when tensions rise over injustice in the workers' plight, Margaret and John are forced to take stock of their feelings for each other as well as their beliefs about what is right. Gaskell paints an emotional and fascinating portrait of human needs and desires set in the volatile political, commercial, and social landscape of nineteenth-century England.

About the Author

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was born to a strongly religious family near London. Sadly, Gaskell's mother died soon after her birth, and her father decided to send his infant daughter to live with her maternal aunt. Gaskell grew up in her aunt's family, marrying a Unitarian minister and writer in her early twenties. After giving birth to several children, Gaskell began to write. She and her husband circulated among some of the most famous writers and thinkers of their day, exchanging ideas on the art of fiction as well as on key political and social concerns with their brilliant friends. Gaskell became close to the writer Charlotte Bronte, whose biography she would eventually write. By the time of Gaskell's untimely death at age fifty-five, she had already established what would become a long-lived reputation as an insightful and talented writer whose works—among them North and South, Cranford, and Mary Barton—could shed light on the lives of nineteenth century women and on the important issues of her day.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

But, as Margaret half suspected, Edith had fallen asleep. She lay curled up on the sofa in the back drawing-room in Harley Street, looking very lovely in her white muslin and blue ribbons. If Titania had ever been dressed in white muslin and blue ribbons, and had fallen asleep on a crimson damask ...