Reviews with content warning for Violence - North and South

What a wonderful book! "An industrial re-writing of Pride and Prejudice", as Jenny Uglow put it in her introduction to the novel; though "North and South" deals with heavier (and more important, in my opinion) topics.

I loved the meditations on religion, class and morals, the picturesque descriptions of the North and the South, and how real every single character felt. I only wish we had gotten more romantic moments and a less abrupt ending (E. Gaskell had to rush the last chapters).

I'm going to include my favourite passages but mark some of them as spoilers if they are lengthy.

'You must grant me this one point. Given a strong feeling of independence in every Darkshire man, have I any right to obtrude my views, of the manner in which he shall act, upon another (hating it as I should do most vehemently myself), merely because he has labour to sell and I capital to buy?'
'Not in the least. Not in the least because of your labour and capital positions, whatever whatever they are, but because you are a man, dealing with a set of men over whom you have, whether you reject the use of it or not, immense power, just because your lives and your welfare are so constantly and intimately interwoven. God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent.'

'But what win ye have? 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. I've longed for to be a man to go spreeing, even it were only a tramp to some new place in search o' work. And father—all men—have it stronger in 'em than me to get tired o' sameness and work for ever. And what is 'em to do? It's little blame to them if they do go into th' gin-shop for to make their blood flow quicker, and more lively, and see things they never see at no other time—pictures, and looking-glass, and such like. But father never was a drunkard, though maybe, he's got worse for drink, now and then. Only yo' see, at times o' strike there's much to knock a man down, for all they start so hopefully; and where's the comfort to come fro'? He'll get angry and mad—they all do—and then they get tired out wi' being angry and mad, and maybe ha' done things in their passion they'd be glad to forget. Bless yo'r sweet pitiful face! but yo' dunnot know what a strike is yet.'

"A bad-looking fellow, I can assure you, miss. Whiskers such as I should be ashamed to wear – they are so red."

My favourite:

...all the time it would have been a relief to believe her utterly unworthy of his esteem. It was this that made the misery—that he passionately loved her, and thought her, even with all her faults, more lovely and more excellent than any other woman; yet he deemed her so attached to some other man, so led away by her affection for him as to violate her truthful nature. The very falsehood that stained her, was a proof how blindly she loved another—this dark, slight, elegant, handsome man—while he himself was rough, and stern, and strongly made. He lashed himself into an agony of fierce jealousy. He thought of that look, that attitude!—how he would have laid his life at her feet for such tender glances, such fond detention! He mocked at himself, for having valued the mechanical way in which she had protected him from the fury of the mob; now he had seen how soft and bewitching she looked when with a man she really loved. He remembered, point by point, the sharpness of her words—'There was not a man in all that crowd for whom she would not have done as much, far more readily than for him.' He shared with the mob, in her desire of averting bloodshed from them; but this man, this hidden lover, shared with nobody; he had looks, words, hand-cleavings, lies, concealment, all to himself

'It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young, afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive.'

'After all it is right. If the world stood still, it would retrograde and become corrupt, if that is not Irish. Looking out of myself, and my own painful sense of change, the progress all around me is right and necessary. I must not think so much of how circumstances affect me myself, but how they affect others, if I wish to have a right judgment, or a hopeful trustful heart.'

🥲

He knelt by her side, to bring his face to a level with her ear; and whispered-panted out the words:
— 'Take care.—If you do not speak—I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way.—Send me away at once, if I must go;—Margaret!—

Content Warnings

lahars_little_library's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

fa1th_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is what I imagine what a Victorian novel would be like.

I have watched the adapted BBC 2004 miniseries prior to reading the book, and I think it did me a lot of good, or else I wouldn't have such patience cracking down a 700 pages book. To put it poorly, this novel is sort of what I imagine Pride and Prejudice would be like, if it was set in the changing time of the Industrial Revolution. The world was filled with smoke and dirt, a whole lot dimmer, and death creeping in every corner. Similar premise to Austen's P&P, our heroine Margaret was the 'Prejudice' to Mr. Thornton's 'Pride', only in Gaskell's story, their opposing opinions were rooted in differences of class and in the culture. Both Margaret and Mr. Thornton were only a small fraction of the rapidly changes of time. I love what Gaskell did with her social commentary of the time, with Margaret moving from the leisure and comforting South to the cold and fast-moving North, her entire life was challenged and altered, same as her points of view.

I love Margaret as a protagonist. She was soft and kind yet strong-minded, while she began as a sheltered and prejudiced young lady living her privileged life in London, her world would soon never be peaceful again. Family troubles worried her to no end, deaths came one by one and not to mention a brother on the run with mutiny charges. At times I was so awe with her strength and resilience, because I would be in such a bad place if I'm in her shoes, this poor girl suffered so much with so many lost. With bleak changes both inside and outside of her home, Margaret was forced to grow up and be her own mistress, but she never lost hope and always strived to provide comfort to those who were in need. She was a bit haughty at first, upset by Milton's poverty and coldness, but quickly she realized her conceit and unfair judgement, and came to love Milton for what it was.

I also really love Mr. Thornton. He was a self-made man, a cotton-mill owner, which made Margaret turned her nose up at first. However, he proudly stood his ground, because he worked hard to earn his wealth and took care of his family, so his encounters with Margaret were clash of different ideas. Since I'm already using Austen as a comparison, I would like to mention that in this novel, we did get a lot more thoughts from the Mr. Thornton's point of view than Mr.Darcy. He was hopelessly in love with Margaret and it was clearly shown. Even though I must confess, as a reader in 2021, I kind of don't like Mrs. Thornton. Her attachment to her son was understandable, but sometimes she was so hostile and harsh to Margaret that I had to roll my eyes. Though Mr. Bell in the latter half behaved in a similar way as Margaret's protecter (side-note, love him, such a funny guy), thus eased off my dislike a bit, I just want her to be treated with kindness and love because she deserved all the love :'(

I enjoyed this story very much, the reason I deducted 0.5 in the rating was only because it was kind of depressing (in a typical Victorian classic literature way), so I wouldn't want to revisit it easily. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I picked it up, and I will continue with Gaskell's works whenever I'm able.

Content Warnings

rieviolet's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I can say that I enjoyed the reading experience, although it took me a couple of chapters to get really into the story. I often heard the book described as "Pride and Prejudice plus socialism" and, honestly, it's not such a far-off description.

I really liked the characters' depiction and their growth over the course of the story, I appreciated how the author portrayed even the ones that I didn't find particulary pleasant. There were a lot of tragedies and misfortunes that kept occuring (maybe too many, give us a break Elizabeth Gaskell please) and that really took me by surprise and moved me.
I'm not immune to a good romantic plot but I can say that I really appreciated that there was more to the novel. I really enjoyed the description and the reflections on the social reality of the time, the strike and the conditions of workers.

Still, there were some aspects that stopped me from giving full marks. There were maybe a bit too many mentions and reflections on religion that bored me a little and in part flew over my head, but that is more of a personal preference as someone who is not much of a religious person.
I can also say that the pacing felt a bit off. At times the story dragged on a bit and moved quite slowly, then,
instead, the ending felt rushed, the long-awaited resolution came very quickly and the novel ended rather abruptly.

Content Warnings

gracescanlon's review

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

lara_bk's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

jowmy4's review

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emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one of my absolute favourite books. I have read this book a few times before, and this time listen to an audiobook. It was even better than I rembered it being. The beginning is very slow and quite difficult to get into, but sets up important context which pays off later in the book. I think this is, objectively, a good book, but I'm also aware that probably the reason I love it so much is because it hits a lot of my personal preferences: class and social issues, rural villages, industrial towns, a variety of interesting family dynamics, friendships, characters learning and growing, and seemingly-unrequited romance. The characters are all really well developed, as well, and Mrs Thornton and Mr Thornton are probably two of my favourite characters of all time. The story is sad at points, but I had a big smile on my face at the end.

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