North and South (Hardcover)

In so many ways, though, this novel is a treasure. It's not easy to write a political novel with a strong love story and good characterizations. Gaskell takes on quite a bit and mostly succeeds in her task of describing the changes industrialization brought to England. She balances her sympathy for the workers in the factories with the dilemmas posed to the mill owners by new machinery, competition from abroad, and the threats of potential workers' strikes. She contrasts very effectively the excitement of this new way of life against the nostalgia for the agrarian past. These were new concepts in Victorian England, but they are not so foreign today that we cannot readily understand their significance.

She gives us a sympathetic and spirited heroine in Margaret Hale, who is wise beyond her years. Another colorful character is Nicholas Higgins. I found myself looking forward to his scenes because he provides the humor in an almost-humorless book. (It is funny at the end, though, and I would have liked to have seen more of this tone.)

Mr. Thornton is a character we can readily identify with--someone who triumphs over adversity and seeks to constantly better himself. Someone with high standards, yet none higher than he holds himself to. Margaret is his match in every way.

I did see many plot similarities with "Pride and Prejudice" in the love story. We have characters of different class backgrounds who are initially repelled but who come to appreciate each other and are kept apart by misunderstandings and circumstances. The proposal scenes are strikingly familiar, and the first proposal includes almost the same language (re gentlemanlike behavior) that Elizabeth speaks to Darcy. And we have a Lady Catherine DeBourgh character in Mrs. Thornton, who does her best to drive the lovers apart. But I can't fault Mrs. Gaskell for borrowing plotlines from the master. Although Gaskell is a strong writer, she does not quite have Jane Austen's gift for revealing the humanity in her characters with humor and affection. There is not much "fun" and no banter (until the very last lines of the book) in the North and South love story.

There are many plot contrivances and conveniences, too, which compel us to suspend disbelief. A few too many rapid deaths, a character's coincidental presence at a key scene, another character showing up in an unexpected place, and more. But these limitations serve to drive the story and allow us to focus on the strong moral characters of our central characters and our strong wish for their eventual reconciliation.

In the Penguin edition, it is also rather disturbing to find the plot given away in the footnotes. I read the footnotes religiously to orient myself, but I don't understand why they have to mention so many plot occurrences (especially big things like deaths and proposals) ahead of time. So, if you don't want to know how things go, read the footnotes (and preface) judiciously.

OK, I've written a lot of negatives and yet I give the book 4 stars. Despite its flaws, North and South takes on a lot and mainly succeeds. I love its ambition and its great heart. I love that I learned a lot about English history at that particular time. I love that it rewarded me for getting through those first 150 pages with a rich, compelling story. I love that Mrs. Gaskell held my interest to the end. As Victorian novels go, this is surprisingly modern and a worthwhile read.

And the social mores of newly industrial Britian are thoroughly dissected by Gaskell and though she certainly moralizes, her social conscience is intellgient and more subtle than that present in the works of some of her contemporaries. Ultimately, there are real issues at stake in this novel--the inhumanity sometimes present in capitalistic societies and the inevitability of technological progress and societal change. Themes that certainly still apply to our contemporary world situation. In this way, Gaskell's novel has an interresting twinge of modernity in its implications. Plus, there's a moving love story as well, about fully-realized and interesting characters, with some of the best and wittiest dialogue saved for the very last scene...