Cross Emma Woodhouse with a prig, Fitzwilliam Darcy with a fiscal Republican, give half the population of England apoplexy and the other half consumption and you'll end up with North and South. I really did not like this book, for all my usual fondness for nineteenth century literature. Everything about it seemed designed to clash with my sensibilities—the moralising, the formulaic relationship progression, the awful, patronising portrayal of working class characters—and that was even before Gaskell revealed her anti-Irish bigotry.

'There's granite in all these northern people, papa, is there not?'

'There was none in poor Boucher, I am afraid; none in his wife either.'

'I should guess from their tones that they had Irish blood in them.

Charming. ( )

A great love story involving poor first impressions and haughty pride (P&P in a sense but reverse) between Margaret Hale, a young woman from the country who moves to an industrious mill town, and John Thornton, the local mill owner who started with nothing and pulled him and his family up form the boot strap. The two have differeing viewpoints on the way he should handle his business and Margaret forms friendships with the factory workers. How could these two ever see eye to eye? Great dark gothic tale with a silver lining! A must read especially by fans of Austen's P&P, this book ranks up there in my opinion (see the Richard Armitage North and South miniseries after you read! He has Firth on the run! lol) ( )

This is a delightful novel reminding one of George Eliot or Jane Austen mixed with a bit of Dickens. A story of the changing fortunes of a young country gentlewoman, Margaret Hale, who is forced to move with her family to the crass industrial city of Milton in the north of England. Here she befriends an impoverished mill working family as well as a successful mill-owner Mr. Thornton - who cannot be seen as a gentlemen as he is in "trade."

Who couldn't love Victorian notions of the gentry, courtship, maidenhood admixed with the more harsh realities of death, poverty and social injustice? Margaret is also a great heroine and her maturation and kindheartedness are well portrayed. The writing is fine, and actually given her contemporaries, Gaskell showed restraint in regards to verbosity.

My complaints are minor -- occasionally a bit long winded with the labor issues, and I agree with the author - the ending is a bit rushed. My other major complaint is entirely the fault of the publisher/editor 'Penguin.' Heinous spoilers in the footnotes! For shame! Why is it that no one at these publishing houses can conceive that there are readers of classics who don't know the story and are reading for pleasure?

Overall, quite good -- a must for lovers of 19th century English literature. ( )

Unfortunately, this book is not as gently funny as Cranford, my introduction to Gaskell, was, but it was still enjoyable. Sure, Margaret's dad is a bit of persistent jerk, but Margaret is a good protagonist-- opinionated, proud, intelligent, resourceful. I guess the romance with Thornton is good if you like that sort of thing, but I found Margaret's acclimation to the society of Milton-Northern to interesting, as well as her struggles to carry on as her family decays around her. It's a classic Victorian novel in the sense that, as one of my fellow students pointed out, every character spends the entire book not saying what they actually think. Which is always fun.

the best book ever. and the mini movie is AWESOME! ( )