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A review by toggle_fow
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
5.0
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.