North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

The book has been adapted for a BBC mini-series

Falling in love with BBC's Gaskell movies, was the motivation behind picking up her books, and I'm so glad I did!  North and South was published seven years after Mary Barton made its appearence on the literary stage.  By this time, Gaskell's confidence in her craft had grown exponentially.  She no longer speaks directly to her imagined audience or preaches her own perspective.  Instead, she breathes life into well-rounded individuals, developing their characters through each new challenging scene.  Gaskell does not confine herself to one class of individuals and, in this book, tackles the challenges and prejudices that are rooted in place. 

In this story, Margaret Hale finds herself uprooted from her beloved southern farming village, Helston by her father and replanted in Milton, a northern factory driven town.  Everything here, from the class separation, to the local slang, to the handshake being used as a formal greeting is foreign to her.  She finds herself standing firm in all she knows with dignity and grace, but is taken for a proud and arrogant young lady.  This misunderstanding of character extends to John Thornton, the master of a local mill.  His hardness of character and business shrewdness is taken by Margaret to mean he is an unfeeling and unchristian individual.  Gaskell weaves the story of their love through the tension of a strike.  She is thus able to examine the labor practices of her day demonstrating how so much of the trouble is caused by misunderstandings on both sides.

Gaskell uses a far more balanced hand in her promotion of Christian morality within this work.  She has learned the art of allowing her characters to live out the pages of the work, growing with each scene.  This made for a far more convincing ending then she left us with seven years earlier in Mary Barton.  I truly enjoyed this book.  Though, as is true with all literature turned cinema, there are differences from the big screen and the pages.  Both the movie and the book are well done.