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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
slow-paced
The mini series holds the dearest place in my heart, and I so wanted to love this book. It's obviously a work of art, but I found it quite boring at times.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
FINALLY some GOOD SOCIAL COMMENTARY.
First of all, the pining in this book? Superb. A delicacy of its kind. And can I just say, that the reason why this is so is because of how much of the book gives you MR. THORNTON'S PERSPECTIVE. Most of it is about Margaret, but compared to every other similar book where the Darcy/Knightley/whoever figure is just there and you essentially have to guess at every single thing they might be thinking or feeling until the denouement... the pieces of Mr. Thornton's perspective we are shown all along build the tension so well.
Other than that, the social commentary. I'm not sure if Margaret is just really confused about social class or if it's the Victorian Era and We Are All Confused About Social Class. Like, does being rich make you high-class? Margaret is judging Mr. Thornton harshly as "shoppy" and a brute because he runs a company, but at the same time is inviting herself to "call on" a factory worker. Is a clergyman necessarily a gentlemen? If so, why? We are told nothing about Mr. Hale's pedigree, and he's certainly poor enough.
The whole first third of the book is just everyone looking down on each other for reasons that are incomprehensible, but very interesting.
I'm a big fan of the extremely long stretches of daily life that we get to live with Margaret, and the action! In what other same-genre book is there an outlaw in the family, and mob violence in the streets? The way that the proposal comes quite early and then after it's rejected, Margaret and Mr. Thornton each spend years separately growing as people in ways that have very little to do with each other... Fantastic.
The only downside is the ending. The whole meeting on trains going opposite directions thing from the miniseries is certainly romantic, but the book's ending could have been just as good if it weren't SNIPPED AT THE VERY ROOT. It just ends! They hardly even have come to an understanding and boom, that's it! They still don't even really know each other as people! They have so much to talk about! I can't believe the book spent so many words drawing everything out so well and then just tossed the ending in like an afterthought.
First of all, the pining in this book? Superb. A delicacy of its kind. And can I just say, that the reason why this is so is because of how much of the book gives you MR. THORNTON'S PERSPECTIVE. Most of it is about Margaret, but compared to every other similar book where the Darcy/Knightley/whoever figure is just there and you essentially have to guess at every single thing they might be thinking or feeling until the denouement... the pieces of Mr. Thornton's perspective we are shown all along build the tension so well.
Other than that, the social commentary. I'm not sure if Margaret is just really confused about social class or if it's the Victorian Era and We Are All Confused About Social Class. Like, does being rich make you high-class? Margaret is judging Mr. Thornton harshly as "shoppy" and a brute because he runs a company, but at the same time is inviting herself to "call on" a factory worker. Is a clergyman necessarily a gentlemen? If so, why? We are told nothing about Mr. Hale's pedigree, and he's certainly poor enough.
The whole first third of the book is just everyone looking down on each other for reasons that are incomprehensible, but very interesting.
I'm a big fan of the extremely long stretches of daily life that we get to live with Margaret, and the action! In what other same-genre book is there an outlaw in the family, and mob violence in the streets? The way that the proposal comes quite early and then after it's rejected, Margaret and Mr. Thornton each spend years separately growing as people in ways that have very little to do with each other... Fantastic.
The only downside is the ending. The whole meeting on trains going opposite directions thing from the miniseries is certainly romantic, but the book's ending could have been just as good if it weren't SNIPPED AT THE VERY ROOT. It just ends! They hardly even have come to an understanding and boom, that's it! They still don't even really know each other as people! They have so much to talk about! I can't believe the book spent so many words drawing everything out so well and then just tossed the ending in like an afterthought.
Very different from the movie starring Richard Armitage. Besides dragging a bit over half way through, it picked up speed again and I love the ending to the book much better than the movie. A new favorite :) I love how Gaskell was able to make around four years worth of time flow naturally in the book without dragging on and on. The development of the characters, especially Thornton and Margaret was beautiful. By the end of the book they had changed into new people while still being them. This ranks up there with Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“…we have many among us who, if he [the inventor of the steam-hammer] were gone, could spring into the breach and carry on the war which compels, and shall compel, all material power to yield to science.” (81)
In its defence, this is an immersive story about going somewhere far away from home, suffering huge tragedy, but learning to love this strange place anyway, for all its petty foibles. Then, returning home again to find yourself immeasurably changed, and unable to see the world the same way.
On the other hand, this book slows to an absolutely glacial pace about a quarter of the way in and doesn’t pick up until about 200 pages later. Probably a casualty of the serialised way it was written. By the end, when events were happening and characters were reacting to events and taking action, it all feels too compressed and sudden.
Also, the romance didn’t land for me. I see the beginnings of the ‘get two people on opposite sides of a debate with opposite temperaments and force them to reconcile and fail in love’ trope. It’s an interesting approach. But for me the novel spends too much time with their characters stuck in orbit around each other without significantly developing or challenging the dynamic between them.
A lot of these gripes are just symptoms of the time, so it’s hard to hold it against the book. There’s plenty of really interesting political economy and social commentary about the Industrial North as ‘another land’ in the minds of the non-mercantile Southerners. The merchants have sprung up, seized their fortune through the power of progress, and threatened the relatively static and pastoral upper class. This is what happens when the classes interact and learn more about each other.
As Mr. Thornton says:
“We should understand each other better, and I’ll venture to say we should like each other more.”
In its defence, this is an immersive story about going somewhere far away from home, suffering huge tragedy, but learning to love this strange place anyway, for all its petty foibles. Then, returning home again to find yourself immeasurably changed, and unable to see the world the same way.
On the other hand, this book slows to an absolutely glacial pace about a quarter of the way in and doesn’t pick up until about 200 pages later. Probably a casualty of the serialised way it was written. By the end, when events were happening and characters were reacting to events and taking action, it all feels too compressed and sudden.
Also, the romance didn’t land for me. I see the beginnings of the ‘get two people on opposite sides of a debate with opposite temperaments and force them to reconcile and fail in love’ trope. It’s an interesting approach. But for me the novel spends too much time with their characters stuck in orbit around each other without significantly developing or challenging the dynamic between them.
A lot of these gripes are just symptoms of the time, so it’s hard to hold it against the book. There’s plenty of really interesting political economy and social commentary about the Industrial North as ‘another land’ in the minds of the non-mercantile Southerners. The merchants have sprung up, seized their fortune through the power of progress, and threatened the relatively static and pastoral upper class. This is what happens when the classes interact and learn more about each other.
As Mr. Thornton says:
“We should understand each other better, and I’ll venture to say we should like each other more.”
I skimmed the last 25% of this because I was honestly just so bored, I'm very sad to say! Perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell just isn't the author for me!
I’m always amazed at how many relevant truths are captured in the classics. For this tale I only wish we’d more time with the lovers at the end.