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A review by iced_mochas
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Workers’ strikes, radical interventions, suicide driven by spiralling debts, changing belief systems, turning down marriage proposals – this is truly a novel that could have been written over the past year.
A contemporary of Charles Dickens, author Elizabeth Gaskell is unbelievably accessible as a classic novelist and alarmingly progressive in her representation of class struggle and womanhood. I would go as far as saying she is miles ahead – and the cherry on top – her writing is enjoyable!
Due to an interesting moral dilemma, the Hales have to move from their comfortable countryside living in the South to the polluted manufacturing town in the North. Gaskell uncovers the social landscape by pitting the classes against each other, then putting them in conversation.
While the passages written in Nicholas Higgins’ voice can feel a bit long (I took a break from the book roughly midway), there is such careful attention paid to the various trials that life dishes out to each of these groups. There is even a distinction made between striking workers and a more radical, desperate cohort of people, who have had even less luck in life. During the strikes, mill owner Mr Thornton “imports hands” from Ireland – the crude dehumanising language exposing cheap labour.
The protagonist, Margaret Hale, is an all-too-perfect daughter to her ailing parents and their turbulent life choices. Yet while her round-the-clock kindness and obedience is unconvincing, her critical take on exploitative bosses and working conditions, as well as her quick, sharp, irritated tongue are a comfort to behold. “Papa, I do think Mr. Thornton a very remarkable man; but personally I don't like him at all,” she tells her father.
Opinionated as she is, Margaret offers a more neutral platform through which to explore each of the characters. We accompany her through the tragedies and we observe as she grieves. Mr Bell, though a fleeting presence, was one of my favourite characters with his amusing, warm and loving nature. Mr Thornton doesn’t really grow on me the way he grows on Margaret. His mother, in particular, is depicted as snobby and overbearing.
As for the ending, I wonder how much the editors influenced it. I remember being a bit disappointed by the ending to Mary Barton too – the other Gaskell novel I read – but both literary works left such a huge impression. This is a great place to start with Victorian literature if you’re interested in the themes above.
***
“She used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore, or she looked out upon the more distant heave, and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually. She was soothed without knowing how or why.
But all this time for thought enabled Margaret to put events in their right places, as to origin and significance, both as regarded her past life and her future. Those hours by the seaside were not lost, as any one might have seen who had had the perception to read, or the care to understand, the look that Margaret's face was gradually acquiring.”
A contemporary of Charles Dickens, author Elizabeth Gaskell is unbelievably accessible as a classic novelist and alarmingly progressive in her representation of class struggle and womanhood. I would go as far as saying she is miles ahead – and the cherry on top – her writing is enjoyable!
Due to an interesting moral dilemma, the Hales have to move from their comfortable countryside living in the South to the polluted manufacturing town in the North. Gaskell uncovers the social landscape by pitting the classes against each other, then putting them in conversation.
While the passages written in Nicholas Higgins’ voice can feel a bit long (I took a break from the book roughly midway), there is such careful attention paid to the various trials that life dishes out to each of these groups. There is even a distinction made between striking workers and a more radical, desperate cohort of people, who have had even less luck in life. During the strikes, mill owner Mr Thornton “imports hands” from Ireland – the crude dehumanising language exposing cheap labour.
The protagonist, Margaret Hale, is an all-too-perfect daughter to her ailing parents and their turbulent life choices. Yet while her round-the-clock kindness and obedience is unconvincing, her critical take on exploitative bosses and working conditions, as well as her quick, sharp, irritated tongue are a comfort to behold. “Papa, I do think Mr. Thornton a very remarkable man; but personally I don't like him at all,” she tells her father.
Opinionated as she is, Margaret offers a more neutral platform through which to explore each of the characters. We accompany her through the tragedies and we observe as she grieves. Mr Bell, though a fleeting presence, was one of my favourite characters with his amusing, warm and loving nature. Mr Thornton doesn’t really grow on me the way he grows on Margaret. His mother, in particular, is depicted as snobby and overbearing.
As for the ending, I wonder how much the editors influenced it. I remember being a bit disappointed by the ending to Mary Barton too – the other Gaskell novel I read – but both literary works left such a huge impression. This is a great place to start with Victorian literature if you’re interested in the themes above.
***
“She used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore, or she looked out upon the more distant heave, and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually. She was soothed without knowing how or why.
But all this time for thought enabled Margaret to put events in their right places, as to origin and significance, both as regarded her past life and her future. Those hours by the seaside were not lost, as any one might have seen who had had the perception to read, or the care to understand, the look that Margaret's face was gradually acquiring.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide and Death