North and South (1854 novel)

North and South is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in 1854. It originally appeared as a serial in the magazine, Household Words. The title indicates a major theme of the book: the contrast between the way of life in the industrial north of England and the wealthier south.

Related Topics:
Elizabeth Gaskell - 1854 - Household Words - England

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The book is a social novel that tries to show the industrial north and its conflicts in the mid-nineteenth century as seen by an outsider, a socially sensitive lady from the south.

Related Topics:
Social novel - Industrial north

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The story: the heroine, Margaret Hale, is the daughter of a Nonconformist minister who moves to the fictional industrial town of Milton after leaving the Church of England.The town is modeled after Manchester, where Gaskell lived as the wife of a minister. The change of lifestyle shocks Margaret, who sympathizes deeply with the poverty of the workers and comes into conflict with John Thornton, the owner of a local mill, also a friend of a friend of her father. As a result of an encounter with a group of strikers, where she exposes herself before the strikers, he tells that he is in love with her, but she rejects his proposal of marriage, mainly because she sees it as if it were out of obligation for what she had done. Later, he sees her with her brother, whom he mistakes for another suitor, and quarrels with her for that. Margaret, once she believes she has lost his affection, begins to see him in another light, and eventually they are reunited.

Related Topics:
Church of England - Manchester

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