North and South

I was first made aware of Elizabeth Gaskell in a discussion about Jane Austen in which a good friend said that I should read Gaskell for truly great 19th century literature. I love Jane Austen, and that won't change, but I may come to love Gaskell too. This was my first novel by her, and it's fantastic! Having grown up very aware of the industrial revolution, it was fascinating to read about the north of England in this time. The characters are engaging, and the setting well described. My only complaint is that it was at times difficult to understand the workers, as they are written in dialect.

wow this was a heavy book, i really enjoyed most of it where it kinda dwelt on the disparity and gaps between the Southern gentility and Northern factory men. it asked a lot of questions about class hierarchy, the function of religion in the society as it was back then, and also like what constituted “breeding” at all, instead of only focusing on the upper-middle class societal politics that most novels at the time was wont to do. i kinda felt like the last 10 chapters were a little draggy though. i felt like after Margaret left Milton, the discussion and the contrast between the classes went away as well, and then we just have a series of events that first made her lonelier and then made her richer. as for the ending, i really wish there was more said of the reconciliation between Margaret and Mr Thornton, or that we had seen how she would behave with Mrs Thornton. there's so much that could have been said between them! she was once a subject of Mrs Thornton's disdain because she was a Southern gentlewoman who was too soft, i guess, and was poor, but now she's the one saving her son's entire business. and then how would her match with Mr Thornton be viewed by her aunt Shaw and her cousin Edith?? SO MUCH COULD HAVE BEEN SAID. what a wasted opportunity. but still the book did leave me happy and i really want to watch that mini-series now.