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lizzye33's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Cultural appropriation, and Classism
Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Gore, Hate crime, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Murder
mal_eficent's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a book I love more and more with each reread – and each new introduction. Learning more of the contemporary context around class and literary movements at the time adds a lot of needed clarity to many of the events and chapters.
That said, I don't always get on with Gaskell's writing style. Sometimes I found myself flicking back a page or rereading a paragraph to figure out what was going on in the poetic phrasing and long, winding sentences. On the whole the writing is more practical and full of less tangents than an Austen, and it is always at least relevant to the immediate characters and setting. It's a beautiful way of writing that had me enthralled for most of the novel – even if it was a bit too religious for my tastes.
The events deviated quite a lot from the TV series in the second half, I felt, which left me feeling a little bit lost at times. I was expecting events and conversations that never came which in turn made things seem a little bit dull. In some ways it left me wanting. No exhibition where Maragret learnt some appreciation for machinery, all we got was some subtle thought pieces.
The ending, however, with it's bright and sudden punch of character, I enjoyed much more than the TV series which suffered quite badly from the slow, modern romantic haze I can't stand. It ended the book on a high note that made me happy for characters I loved. If you can stand an older writing style, it's a very compelling romance and I'll definitely be binge watching the series to compare it to the book properly.
That said, I don't always get on with Gaskell's writing style. Sometimes I found myself flicking back a page or rereading a paragraph to figure out what was going on in the poetic phrasing and long, winding sentences. On the whole the writing is more practical and full of less tangents than an Austen, and it is always at least relevant to the immediate characters and setting. It's a beautiful way of writing that had me enthralled for most of the novel – even if it was a bit too religious for my tastes.
The events deviated quite a lot from the TV series in the second half, I felt, which left me feeling a little bit lost at times. I was expecting events and conversations that never came which in turn made things seem a little bit dull. In some ways it left me wanting. No exhibition where Maragret learnt some appreciation for machinery, all we got was some subtle thought pieces.
The ending, however, with it's bright and sudden punch of character, I enjoyed much more than the TV series which suffered quite badly from the slow, modern romantic haze I can't stand. It ended the book on a high note that made me happy for characters I loved. If you can stand an older writing style, it's a very compelling romance and I'll definitely be binge watching the series to compare it to the book properly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Death and Police brutality
mme_carton's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
dianacally's review against another edition
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
kelly04's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Chronic illness and Classism
Minor: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail
milesjmoran's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Alcohol
ofliterarynature's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
mmefish's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
What a wonderful book! "An industrial re-writing of Pride and Prejudice", as Jenny Uglow put it in her introduction to the novel; though "North and South" deals with heavier (and more important, in my opinion) topics.
I loved the meditations on religion, class and morals, the picturesque descriptions of the North and the South, and how real every single character felt. I only wish we had gotten more romantic moments and a less abrupt ending (E. Gaskell had to rush the last chapters).
I'm going to include my favourite passages but mark some of them as spoilers if they are lengthy.
I loved the meditations on religion, class and morals, the picturesque descriptions of the North and the South, and how real every single character felt. I only wish we had gotten more romantic moments and a less abrupt ending (E. Gaskell had to rush the last chapters).
I'm going to include my favourite passages but mark some of them as spoilers if they are lengthy.
'You must grant me this one point. Given a strong feeling of independence in every Darkshire man, have I any right to obtrude my views, of the manner in which he shall act, upon another (hating it as I should do most vehemently myself), merely because he has labour to sell and I capital to buy?'
'Not in the least. Not in the least because of your labour and capital positions, whatever whatever they are, but because you are a man, dealing with a set of men over whom you have, whether you reject the use of it or not, immense power, just because your lives and your welfare are so constantly and intimately interwoven. God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent.'
'But what win ye have? There are days wi' you, as wi' other folk, I suppose, when yo' get up and go through th' hours, just longing for a bit of a change—a bit of a fillip, as it were. I know I ha' gone and bought a four-pounder out o' another baker's shop to common on such days, just because I sickened at the thought of going on for ever wi' the same sight in my eyes, and the same sound in my ears, and the same taste i' my mouth, and the same thought (or no thought, for that matter) in my head, day after day, for ever. I've longed for to be a man to go spreeing, even it were only a tramp to some new place in search o' work. And father—all men—have it stronger in 'em than me to get tired o' sameness and work for ever. And what is 'em to do? It's little blame to them if they do go into th' gin-shop for to make their blood flow quicker, and more lively, and see things they never see at no other time—pictures, and looking-glass, and such like. But father never was a drunkard, though maybe, he's got worse for drink, now and then. Only yo' see, at times o' strike there's much to knock a man down, for all they start so hopefully; and where's the comfort to come fro'? He'll get angry and mad—they all do—and then they get tired out wi' being angry and mad, and maybe ha' done things in their passion they'd be glad to forget. Bless yo'r sweet pitiful face! but yo' dunnot know what a strike is yet.'
"A bad-looking fellow, I can assure you, miss. Whiskers such as I should be ashamed to wear – they are so red."
My favourite:
...all the time it would have been a relief to believe her utterly unworthy of his esteem. It was this that made the misery—that he passionately loved her, and thought her, even with all her faults, more lovely and more excellent than any other woman; yet he deemed her so attached to some other man, so led away by her affection for him as to violate her truthful nature. The very falsehood that stained her, was a proof how blindly she loved another—this dark, slight, elegant, handsome man—while he himself was rough, and stern, and strongly made. He lashed himself into an agony of fierce jealousy. He thought of that look, that attitude!—how he would have laid his life at her feet for such tender glances, such fond detention! He mocked at himself, for having valued the mechanical way in which she had protected him from the fury of the mob; now he had seen how soft and bewitching she looked when with a man she really loved. He remembered, point by point, the sharpness of her words—'There was not a man in all that crowd for whom she would not have done as much, far more readily than for him.' He shared with the mob, in her desire of averting bloodshed from them; but this man, this hidden lover, shared with nobody; he had looks, words, hand-cleavings, lies, concealment, all to himself
'It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young, afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive.'
'After all it is right. If the world stood still, it would retrograde and become corrupt, if that is not Irish. Looking out of myself, and my own painful sense of change, the progress all around me is right and necessary. I must not think so much of how circumstances affect me myself, but how they affect others, if I wish to have a right judgment, or a hopeful trustful heart.'
🥲
He knelt by her side, to bring his face to a level with her ear; and whispered-panted out the words:
— 'Take care.—If you do not speak—I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way.—Send me away at once, if I must go;—Margaret!—
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Violence
maithaalfalasi's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Minor: Suicide
aqtbenz's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent