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A review by blueyorkie
Norte e Sul by Elizabeth Gaskell
5.0
If Jane Austen had met Emile Zola, it could have given North and South.
When Margaret Hale completes her London education in a year with her cousin and aunt, she returns to the South to her father, a pastor. She does not expect this good man to have lost his faith and become a tax collector in the North. One of his students, a wealthy self-made man, falls under the spell of the young girl, but he will have to face pride and prejudice. But also, its social conscience hatches in the face of the poverty of the workers, strikes, and demonstrations. While the North, in full industrial development, advances towards a new world, the South has remained conservative and rural. In the North, unions emerged; workers fought not to starve, and poor people questioned religion.
Margaret Hale is an Austenian character. Thirty-five years younger than our Jane, Elizabeth Gaskell pays her a perfect homage. "Daughter and wife of a pastor, the author is intimately familiar with provincial life and industrial circles."
The story begins with misunderstandings and oppositions: the North (grey, noisy, and polluted) against the green South, those of man and woman, those of workers against the bosses, etc. Elizabeth Gaskell aims to show that opposites can coexist, attract, and bring each other together and that humans are at the center of everything.
"- once they left their respective roles of boss and worker, they each began to realize that the human heart is the same everywhere."
I spent four small evenings finishing this novel, and I would have liked to read more slowly, stretching out the time. But Elizabeth Gaskell's stories are so pleasant to read—to say that I didn't know her until only a year ago.
That's a shame.
When Margaret Hale completes her London education in a year with her cousin and aunt, she returns to the South to her father, a pastor. She does not expect this good man to have lost his faith and become a tax collector in the North. One of his students, a wealthy self-made man, falls under the spell of the young girl, but he will have to face pride and prejudice. But also, its social conscience hatches in the face of the poverty of the workers, strikes, and demonstrations. While the North, in full industrial development, advances towards a new world, the South has remained conservative and rural. In the North, unions emerged; workers fought not to starve, and poor people questioned religion.
Margaret Hale is an Austenian character. Thirty-five years younger than our Jane, Elizabeth Gaskell pays her a perfect homage. "Daughter and wife of a pastor, the author is intimately familiar with provincial life and industrial circles."
The story begins with misunderstandings and oppositions: the North (grey, noisy, and polluted) against the green South, those of man and woman, those of workers against the bosses, etc. Elizabeth Gaskell aims to show that opposites can coexist, attract, and bring each other together and that humans are at the center of everything.
"- once they left their respective roles of boss and worker, they each began to realize that the human heart is the same everywhere."
I spent four small evenings finishing this novel, and I would have liked to read more slowly, stretching out the time. But Elizabeth Gaskell's stories are so pleasant to read—to say that I didn't know her until only a year ago.
That's a shame.