From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

North and South

Elizabeth Gaskell

Start date: September 15, 2015

Finish date: October 14, 2015

Why we're reading this: Came in second in the Poll
Recommended by Member Judy
[close] Came in second in the Poll
Recommended by Member Judy

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Aug 07, 2012 Chrissie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: relationships, great-britain, victorian, audible-us, fiction, classics

2 stars
All of my reviews are extremely personal. They only reflect my personal reaction to the given book. I explain what exactly I like or dislike in the hope that others will thus be able to determine how they will react to the book. My reviews are not a judgment of the book or the author!

Gaskell is a Victorian writer. This is evident in her prose style and in the life style of the people she puts into her novels. To like her books it helps to not be frustrated with Victorian manners. I reac ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2017 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, classics, vic-lit

Read for Victober 2017.

I loved this book because it was quiet and slow and completely enchanting. Mrs Gaskell told her stories with a graceful build of story told without huge plot points and without shocks and surprises. She told her stories with nuance and subtlety. I expected a romance and instead I got characters who are stubborn and silly and unique; characters who refuse to see that they are in a romance. Ms Hale and Mr Thornton were obviously going to end up together but neither knew it. Read for Victober 2017.

I loved this book because it was quiet and slow and completely enchanting. Mrs Gaskell told her stories with a graceful build of story told without huge plot points and without shocks and surprises. She told her stories with nuance and subtlety. I expected a romance and instead I got characters who are stubborn and silly and unique; characters who refuse to see that they are in a romance. Ms Hale and Mr Thornton were obviously going to end up together but neither knew it. This quote, for me, tells the entire story:

"He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact."

Honestly, I am not a reader of romance novels and so I am possibly the worst reviewer of a romance book. And as read through the reviews of so many others here on Goodreads I realized that many saw a true romance while many others saw none. I think I am somewhere between. This is not a romance where the characters are a couple and you see their growth together. You won't see stolen moments and kisses. And yet, in some ways I found that to be truer to real life. Romance, for me, is about those moments when the emotion surprises me. Some of us call the feeling "butterflies." So let's look back at that one quote:

"He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact."

For me, that is romance... Mr Thornton had butterflies -- he felt the romance. He stubbornly refused to accept it, as did she. But his emotions were raw and Mrs Gaskell gave the reader dozens if not hundreds of such glimpses into her characters' heads.

This book was one that I read in two days -- listening while too active to read. I enjoyed each moment, as it felt quite magical. And then, since it ended it has also made me think. I realize that I learned a lot about life in England at the time. History came to life for me through its pages and so the original 4 star rating became 5. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2008 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, hf-19th-century-europe, read-2010, 3ms, classics, victorians

Discussion at Victorian's group. A masterpiece by Elizabeth Gaskell showing the struggle of the 19th century woman to survive under a Victorian society. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2012 Stacey Matson rated it really liked it

Loved this book and the BBC mini-series that I first viewed. Although often compared to Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the main characters are the middle class and tradespeople, particularly the mill owners, not the landed gentry and their impoverished relations. This novel also differs in its detail of the industrial revolutions impact on Northern England, working conditions, and the relations between the owners and workers of the mills. Only wish Gaskell had not been pressured to finish the nov ...more

Like · see review

Nov 10, 2014 Susannah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: listened-to-audiobook, reading-the-classics

Starting again on May 24, 2017, with Chapter 11.

Setting this one aside for a while. Both the story and the narrator are just fine, and while I understand that North and South reflects the time in which it was written, I'm just not in the mood right now for the story of a woman who is at the mercy of the selfish imbeciles around her (namely, her parents). ...more

Like · see review