North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her cozy home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially reflected in the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret recognizes the poverty and suffering of local millers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is exacerbated by her turbulent relationship with mill owner and her homemade husband, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition to her treatment of her staff masks a deeper draw. In the North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual emotions with social care, and in Margaret Hale she creates one of the most original heroes of Victorian literature.
