When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
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Find North and South Elizabeth Gaskell in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find North and South Elizabeth Gaskell in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
3 books in catalog
Victorian fiction gained a sharper social conscience through detailed depictions of industrial class tensions, small-town domestic customs, and rural community life. Elizabeth Gaskell emerged as a prominent nineteenth-century English novelist and biographer whose narratives offered empathetic examinations of urban poverty, labor struggles, and women's social expectations. Her initial literary success with Mary Barton established her voice as a compassionate observer of industrial Britain, while works like Cranford and North and South demonstrated her versatile handling of both intimate social portraiture and broad economic conflict.
Born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on September 29, 1810, in Chelsea, London, she lost her mother at thirteen months old and was raised by her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, Cheshire. This rural Cheshire setting later served as the primary model for her fictional town in Cranford. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, and relocated to the industrial city of Manchester. Managing her household and ministerial duties kept her closely connected to urban working conditions. Following the death of her infant son, she turned to novel writing, publishing her debut work Mary Barton anonymously in 1848.
Her depiction of Manchester mill workers brought her into contact with major literary figures of the era. Charles Dickens recruited her to contribute stories and serials to his popular periodicals, Household Words and All the Year Round, where North and South was first published. Following the death of her friend Charlotte Brontë in 1855, Charlotte's father, the Reverend Patrick Brontë, requested that Gaskell write her biography. Published in 1857, The Life of Charlotte Brontë became a significant biographical work. Gaskell continued writing until her death on November 12, 1865, leaving her final novel, Wives and Daughters, near completion.
Gaskell's narrative technique blends social realism with keen psychological observation, frequently contrasting northern industrial cities with quiet southern rural communities. Her fiction addresses complex socio-economic realities, such as employer-worker confrontations, class prejudice, religious dissent, and the restricted roles available to women in Victorian society. Rather than relying on rigid moralizing, her stories present nuanced characters facing genuine economic hardships and ethical dilemmas, incorporating authentic regional dialogue and detailed domestic settings.
3 books in catalog
Victorian fiction gained a sharper social conscience through detailed depictions of industrial class tensions, small-town domestic customs, and rural community life. Elizabeth Gaskell emerged as a prominent nineteenth-century English novelist and biographer whose narratives offered empathetic examinations of urban poverty, labor struggles, and women's social expectations. Her initial literary success with Mary Barton established her voice as a compassionate observer of industrial Britain, while works like Cranford and North and South demonstrated her versatile handling of both intimate social portraiture and broad economic conflict.
Born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on September 29, 1810, in Chelsea, London, she lost her mother at thirteen months old and was raised by her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, Cheshire. This rural Cheshire setting later served as the primary model for her fictional town in Cranford. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, and relocated to the industrial city of Manchester. Managing her household and ministerial duties kept her closely connected to urban working conditions. Following the death of her infant son, she turned to novel writing, publishing her debut work Mary Barton anonymously in 1848.
Her depiction of Manchester mill workers brought her into contact with major literary figures of the era. Charles Dickens recruited her to contribute stories and serials to his popular periodicals, Household Words and All the Year Round, where North and South was first published. Following the death of her friend Charlotte Brontë in 1855, Charlotte's father, the Reverend Patrick Brontë, requested that Gaskell write her biography. Published in 1857, The Life of Charlotte Brontë became a significant biographical work. Gaskell continued writing until her death on November 12, 1865, leaving her final novel, Wives and Daughters, near completion.
Gaskell's narrative technique blends social realism with keen psychological observation, frequently contrasting northern industrial cities with quiet southern rural communities. Her fiction addresses complex socio-economic realities, such as employer-worker confrontations, class prejudice, religious dissent, and the restricted roles available to women in Victorian society. Rather than relying on rigid moralizing, her stories present nuanced characters facing genuine economic hardships and ethical dilemmas, incorporating authentic regional dialogue and detailed domestic settings.
