North & South
Elizabeth Gaskill
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.
LOVE THE MOVIE!
Feel free to comment on the book and your thoughts, or even the movie. It's great (but I think it's 4 hours).
Loved the book and movie, but they are not chronologically the same. The events are switched around and the movie has an extra part of violence that I personally didn't like and really set me off against Mr. Thorton from the beginning--however it wasn't in the book, so I was never set off.
ReplyDeleteAnd the end was abrupt in the book. Although throughout the book I had to sometimes skim through extraneous parts.
Overall a great love story and a good debate about socially responsible business decisions back in England during the cotton manufacturing times.
BTW, the movie has the best scene at the end! Love the summary of all that romantic tension that built up over the year or two--in that one scene.