North and South in Never too Late to Read Classics

Feb 16, 2015 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics

Elizabeth Gaskell apparently understood both sides of life in her times...the very poor and the very rich. She spans the two classes with finesse and makes one think soundly about the responsibilities each has to the other. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and very much liked both Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton. I especially liked the way Margaret saw beyond her own privileged experiences to the struggles and humanity of those around her. She did not spend any of her time mourning the loss of her ...more

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Jan 12, 2015 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-women

I love this book. It is awesome like Austen and better than Bronte.

Read for Back to the Classics 2015.

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Nov 23, 2022 Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-trad-and-modern, 2022-read

North and South, as the title suggests, is a book which deals with polarities and contrasts.
North and South, urban and rural, gentry and tradesmen, master and worker, organised religion and personally held beliefs - each is challenged by the existence of an opposite or contrasting ideology and opinion, but are these "opposites" really so disparate, is there not always some common ground to be found when people take the time to recognise one another's humanity?
There is a lot going on in this nove North and South, as the title suggests, is a book which deals with polarities and contrasts.
North and South, urban and rural, gentry and tradesmen, master and worker, organised religion and personally held beliefs - each is challenged by the existence of an opposite or contrasting ideology and opinion, but are these "opposites" really so disparate, is there not always some common ground to be found when people take the time to recognise one another's humanity?
There is a lot going on in this novel and it was not quite what I expected. Often touted as a love story or "social novel" North and South is much more than that.
Margaret Hale comes from a respectable family in the rural south and has been partially raised in London society. Forced by her clergyman father's ecclesiastical doubts to move to the industrial north, she carries her class and intellectual prejudices with her. John Thornton, her father's pupil challenges her beliefs as do her interactions with local families in her new home of Milton.

The novel also provides social observation - the plight of workers driven to strike in order to provide for their families, the detachment and power play of the "masters". Gaskell succeeds in showing, that when parties are willing to communicate and compromise, there may be solutions which benefit all parties.

Although I didn't find any of the character particularly lovable, I was able to sympathise with them enough to actually care what happened. Margaret's slight haughty aloofness is balanced by a caring and dutiful heart. She bears most of the hardships of her family due to her father's indecision and mother's weakness. She tries to live by her principals and beliefs and although she is not always perfect her struggle makes her more relatable. Her fragile position as a woman in Victorian society is highlighted a couple of times when she steps in to protect Thornton and when she is seen with her brother Frederick. Despite the advances in attitudes to industry and manufacturing, attitudes regarding acceptable women's conduct remained entrenched in the past.

There was a lot of pride on both sides. Margaret's family hearkening back to their family connections and John and his mother's pride in having achieved their own success and wealth.

The relationships that engaged me the most were those between Margaret and the Higgins family and then Higgins and Thornton. By taking the time to see into another's world Margaret and Thornton were challenged to revise their own opinions and beliefs.
Reading this at a time of widespread strikes in the UK, I found the depiction of the strikes in the novel made a particular impression on me.

Although ultimately, after much misunderstanding and hardship, there is a happy ending to the novel, unfortunately the real world is not so simple. I feel like there's a lot to be learned from Gaskell's novel, even it it errs towards the idealistic. Shouldn't we strive to be idealists?

"And yet , yo see, North and South has both met and made kind o' friends in this big smoky place."

...more

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