I want to begin by saying that this book is not about the Civil War and is in fact set in England during the Victorian Age. Elizabeth Gaskell was most famous for her biography of Charlotte Bronte, who was also a friend. If you ever felt like me when you read Pride and Prejudice, that the characters don't seem to ever do anything of substance, you will be relived to find that North and South is Pride and Prejudice's less glamorous and more gritty friend. By gritty I mean that the hero is a self made man with a northern accent. Margaret Hale is the heroine and she is the daughter of a Vicar in the south of England. At the start of the story her cousin Edith gets married and Margaret who has been living with her Aunt goes back to the south to live with her parents.Then her Father makes a very shocking decision to quit his job and move to the north as a private tutor. Her Father can no longer follow the Church of England's doctrines. So Margaret and her family move to the town of Milton, a manufacturing town based on the town of Manchester.
Her father's first student is a Mr. John Thorton, owner of a textile
mill. Margaret takes an instant and rather unreasonable dislike to him
on the account of him being shockingly a "tradesman." Margaret at first
hates Milton and everyone in it but she befriends a girl named Bessie
Higgins and her father Nicholas. Nicholas works in the local cotton
mills and is a leader in the union.
Margaret and Mr. Thorton have rather frequent debates over his workers
and how they should be treated. Things are so coming to a head and it is
likely that there will be a strike. Well, there is a stike and things
between Margaret and John Thorton come to a head.
After risking her life to save him from some violent strikers he
realizes that he loves her. But she is so not into him. It is really
cute to see how crazy he is about her.
Please Note this report was not finished.
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