NEW SCENES AND FACES

Historical Fiction

North and South (version 2)

by Elizabeth Cleghorn GASKELL (1810 - 1865)

North and South is a social novel that tries to show the industrial North and its conflicts in the mid-19th century as seen by an outsider, a socially sensitive lady from the South. The story: the heroine, Margaret Hale, is the daughter of a Nonconformist minister who moves to the fictional industrial town of Milton after leaving the Church of England. The town is modeled after Manchester, where Gaskell lived as the wife of a Unitarian minister. The change of lifestyle shocks Margaret, who sympathizes deeply with the poverty of the workers and comes into conflict with John Thornton, the owner of a local mill, also a friend of her father. After an encounter with a group of strikers, in which Margaret attempts to protect Thornton from the violence, he proposes to her, telling her that he is in love with her; she rejects his proposal of marriage, mainly because she sees it as if it were out of obligation for what she had done. Later, he sees her with her fugitive brother, whom he mistakes for another suitor, and this creates further unresolved conflict. Margaret, once she believes she has lost his affection, begins to see him in another light, and eventually they are reunited. (Summary from Wikipedeia)

Listen next episodes of North and South (version 2):
A BLOW AND ITS CONSEQUENCES , A RAY OF SUNSHINE , A SOFT BREEZE IN A SULTRY PLACE , ALONE! ALONE! , ANGEL VISITS , BREATHING TRANQUILLITY , CHANGES AT MILTON , COMFORT IN SORROW , DRESSING FOR TEA , EASE NOT PEACE , EXPIATION , FALSE AND TRUE , FIRST IMPRESSIONS , FREDERICK , FRUIT-PIECE , HOME AT LAST , HOME SICKNESS , LIKES AND DISLIKES , LOOKING SOUTH , MAKING FRIENDS , MARGARET'S FLITTIN' , MASTERS AND MEN , MEETING AGAIN , MEN AND GENTLEMEN , MISCHANCES , MISTAKES , MISTAKES CLEARED UP , MORNING CALLS , MOTHER AND SON , 'NE'ER TO BE FOUND AGAIN' , NOT ALL A DREAM , ONCE AND NOW , OUT OF TUNE , 'PACK CLOUDS AWAY' , PEACE , PROMISES FULFILLED , 'SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT?' , SOMETHING WANTING , THE DARK NIGHT , THE JOURNEY'S END , THE MUTINY , THE SHADOW OF DEATH , UNION NOT ALWAYS STRENGTH , WHAT IS A STRIKE? , WROUGHT IRON AND GOLD