[ book tip by Charlotte Hansen ] Mrs. Gaskell first serialised North and South in Dickens’ magazine Household Words in 1854-1855. The story is set in Victorian England and the title indicates the great theme of the book: the divide between the industrial (working-class) North and the wealthier (middle-class) South.

The main protagonist of this, in many ways, social novel is Margaret Hale, the daughter of a Nonconformist minister who leaves the Church of England and moves to the fictional town of Milton in Northern England. The relocation turns Margaret’s life upside down and she takes an instant dislike to the poor and gritty conditions of her new home town. However, she also sympathises deeply with the plight of the working poor and defies social convention by befriending them. Through doing this, she comes into repeated and passionate conflict with John Thornton, the owner of a local mill, who seeks the company of her father. While she stubbornly denies her growing attraction to him, he admits to his feelings for her and agonises over them. The growing tension between Margaret and Thornton is reflected in a strike in Milton that turns explosive and has grave consequences for everybody in town.

[ book info ] Gaskell, Elizabeth : North and South. (Book language: English) Penguin Classics, 2007 . ISBN: 0140620192.