Book #26: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I have loved Elizabeth Gaskell ever since I discovered her five years ago, but I don't think I've re-read this book since then (I liked Wives and Daughters more, which I think I'm going to re-read soon too!). North and South tells the story of Margaret Hale, who is uprooted by her father's crisis of conscience, when he leaves his profession as a pastor and they move from rural southern England to the industrial town of Milton in the north. At first, Margaret is prejudiced against the tradespeople of their new town and hates their new hometown, but the more she gets to know the people, both rich and poor, and the more she learns about their town and the way things work, the more she learns to appreciate it. She meets Mr. Thornton, one of the owners of a cotton factory, and he naturally falls in love with her despite her initial disdain and they have an up and down relationship that lasts throughout the book--until the final resolution in the last two pages.

This book is clearly a social commentary on the change and upheaval going on in their time during the Industrial Revolution in England, but it is also a great romance--two genres that don't seem to be readily mixed. Obviously most readers are probably more interested in the romantic aspects of the story, and I felt like a lot of the discoursing on the different classes and the differences between masters and men could have been condensed and still kept its value. I skimmed a lot of the seriously long paragraphs where it was clear they were only going on more and more about the economy of Milton or arguing about strikes--I felt like I got the gist of it, but I wanted to get to the good stuff. I loved Margaret as a character--the book uses a lot of words like "haughty" to describe her, but I don't get that sense at all. She seems clear-headed and brave and not afraid of people's opinions, all of which I like. Mr. Thornton is an awesome romantic hero--he loves Margaret, proposes to her, she rejects him, and he vows to continue loving her despite knowing she doesn't like him. (It's seriously the same love story as Pride and Prejudice, just with the added social commentary and socialist viewpoints thrown in.) The moments we get from his perspective are definitely heart-throbbing in his love for Margaret. I actually watched the BBC version of the book before re-reading it this week, and it was fun to compare the book-character with what I remembered from the movie; the endings are completely different and both very romantic and satisfying to me as the reader/viewer.

I don't have any more deep thoughts about this right now--I'm trying to finish this fast before Skyping with my family. But it was the perfect book to read this week while Tommy was gone. I love it.