North and South [NOOK Book]

If you're a Pride&Predjudice Fan............

I first saw the BBC miniseries about 18 months ago. I was enthralled. The story has many similarities to the beloved Pride and Predjudice, but the setting and scope of the story are much deeper.

The story is primarily set in the two different worlds in Victorian England. Gently born and raised Margaret is pulled away from the genteel life she is accustomed to in the South of England, to live in a northern manufacturing town. The two very differing climates are metaphors for the experiences and people by whom she is surrounded.

Her own predjudices are tested along a personal journey that opens her heart and mind. Themes of devotion and love are timeless. The more weighty issues of poverty, fair business practices and moral duty are also timeless. In our age of greed, a lot could be gained by reading some of the Victorians like Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens.

This book may not be an easy read to everyone. But if you've read Austen and/or Dickens, it is an enjoyable book. This reader loves history and also loves good romance. I read the final chapter three times because I found it so deeply satisfying.

If you have seen the BBC adaptation, you'll find that it's not entirely true to the book. However, I found them to have the same soul and spirit. North and South is now part of my permanent collection.

13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

A touching story

I saw BBC's movie production of North and South first and then decided I had to read the novel by Elizabeth Gaskel. I was not dissapointed. If anything it will enhance the movie experience because it gives you more details/information about the characters, their actions and events that take place in the novel. This story tells of the hardships that people faced on a daily basis. The love story of John Thornton and Margaret Hale is especially touching because they both had to overcome prejudices 'on her part' and missunderstandings 'on his part'. What a wonderful novel. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has already seen the movie. I have to admit both the movie and the novel of North and South surpasses all versions of Pride and Prejudice.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Loved It (Again)

I recommend it to everyone who likes Victorian era classics, romance, and good historical imagery. I read North and South the first time during my first semester of grad school in 2008 after watching the BBC version on DVD. So I got to compare the endings and read the commentary & footnotes, & etc. I liked the book version better than the DVD, except for the ending and watching Richard Armitage play John Thornton. After re-watching the DVD a few times over 3-1/2 years I bought N&S for my Nook and re-read it with fresh perspective this month (June 2012), and love the book even more than the first time I read it. I understand the ending much better because I get the spirit of the message Gaskell meant for us to come away with. The dvd ending (on the train) gives us a metaphorical visual of what E. Gaskell would have written if she'd been given 21st Century freedom at the time of the Victorian periodical. I am in love with her John Thornton (again).

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great book!

I first saw the BBC movie and I read the book straight away. It is a very well written, enjoyable novel set in Victorian times and through the main protagonists it introduces us to the divide between the industrial north and the more gentlemanly, leisurely south and how different the outlook, temperament and lifestyle of the people from each place is. I truly enjoyed the book. People often compare it to Pride and Prejudice - I would not go that far, but the love story is compelling and the author`s social awareness and sensitivity, her portrayal of the industrial revolution and its effects on people is magnificent and very real. I liked the main characters very much. Recommended.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

One of my favorite books

North and South always delights the reader with a glimpse into the north of England during the Industrial Revolution. The characters show the stereotypes of the day: the North was thought to be always busy, always working, always thinking of money; while the South was thought to be more relaxed and sedate. The resolution is very satisfying for the romantic.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Sooooo GOOD!!

This book has become one of my favorites. It's up there with Pride and Prejudice. The guy is a true hero in this book.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

I loved it!

This book, like others of this era, takes a little bit to get into, but once in it, I love it! Lots of meat, i.e. at least 2-3 different stories going on that have substance to them.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

not complete!

This version of North and South stops just after Mr. Thornton proposes to Margaret, at pg 195. The book is fantastic and there is a complete, free version available.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Supplanted Pride and Prejudice as my favorite

I never thought it possible, but this book supplanted Pride and Prejudice as my favorite romance, reasons being that it brings outside philosophical, political, and economic pressures into the romance. The romance is not just that there are misunderstandings and ruined reputations, but that there are actual lives at stake; entire towns that could fall if the mill workers refuse to work; people could be killed in riots; there is communal strife and an inability to communicate between the social classes. This is an ambitious work that I am head over heels in love with because the prose is poetic, the themes are strong, and the characters sympathetic. Gaskell gives the secondary and tertiary characters all the love, compassion, and motive that is usually reserved for main characters alone. I could go into a detailed analysis of the writing tricks Gaskell uses to appeal to her audience (the sympathetic Victorian woman), such as describing the illnesses of those around Margaret, the way Margaret's eyes sometimes exhibit a childlike wonder or surprised pain, and the way Margaret shoulders the problems of those around her for that is her role as the daughter in the family (really, this is a brilliant piece of Victorian literature), but I won't. I will tell you that if you like reading classics (my childhood was defined by classics, and I desperately miss the feeling of losing myself in that world), you must read this book. If your writing tends toward the classical style, this is a great example to take note of. There are moments when Margaret almost reminds me of Jane Eyre in her contemplations of her role as a female in the world, which makes sense because Mrs Gaskell was actually a sort of social friend of Charlotte Bronte's. In fact, Mrs Gaskell wrote the first biography of Charlotte, and helped create the rather mythological story behind the woman who wrote such great works as Jane Eyre and Villette. P.S. The BBC made a two-part miniseries of this book in 2007, and it is excellent. Things have been changed, obviously, to fit the book into a four-hour showing, but it is a great adaptation and the reason why I read the book in the first place. * Review originally posted at my blog, Worderella Writes: http://worderella.com/2008/02/book-north-and-south/ *

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great Story and Great Book!!!!!

After a friend gave me Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, I picked it up and started reading, intrigued. I was shocked at how quickly I was pulled into the storyline for a book written so long ago, and pleased with the incredible characters and plot. This is a great book and great love story to boot, and I highly recommend reading North and South. It's a great read, and courageous, plucky, tender-hearted Margaret Hale will live on in my mind as a great heroine for a fantastic book!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Over the top!

The love story is fantastic but there is just too little of it. Mostly this book is political; regarding mill workers and the start of unions in England. Although interesting, it bored me after awhile.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic! But...

I love North and South so much. If you enjoy Austen and Dickens you will absolutly love Gaskell. But! My problem was not with the book it was with the introduction. I know people don't necessarily read the intro but I did with this book. It just made the whole book seem like a sexual thriller. That just deeply confused me. So buy this and you wont regret it but you could skip the introduction.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Victorian age analysis of the Industrial Revolution

In 'North and South', Elizabeth Gaskell effectively analyzes and dissects Victorian era social norms. The novel's protagonist, Margaret Hale, is an independant-minded woman who is not afraid to speak her mind or take charge of a given situation. Her story is one of self-discovery, as she comes to face great hardship in the city of Milton (Manchester) and learns to empathize with the plight of the less fortunate. Gaskell paints a huge canvass of characters from all different social backgrounds: the poor, factory workers, the middle class, the educated, capitalists, and manufacterers. Margaret Hale makes a good protagonist because she serves as a sort of middle-ground character: an outsider who is able to befriend both the rich and the poor. The novel serves as a commentary on the class struggle and social unrest of mid-nineteenth century Britain. It deals with the motivations behind these problems and seeks to reconcile them. I found the novel to be a fascinating character study and a complex look at how the Industrial Revolution affected British society. The story drags, however, in some parts and becomes rather contrived near the end. Like all Victorian novels, 'North and South', is long and sentimental. Still, if you're interested in British literature, 'North and South' is worth checking out. Elizabeth Gaskell deserves more attention for her body of work.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Liked it, but its slow

I bought the combined books of Eliz Gaskell to read after seeing the British movie, North and South, based on her story. It is difficult reading the book because the author writes in the language of the time and meanders around the thoughts of the characters. I wanted to understand more of the characters after seeing the movie, but it was still slow. I was disappointed that the movie had taken liberties with the actual book, which I suspected because of how it ended. But all in all, I enjoyed learning more about the lives of people in that era.

Helpful Review

As much as i wanted and expected to love this book it was very dense with economy and political conversations that i skipped as they did not matter to the plot. Like david copperfield the plot was good but the denseness was awful. She did not even get engaged until page 1138 of 1142. I WAS DISAPPOINTED.

Good read!

Very good book. A classic that is worth reading!

The best book ever!

This is my fav book! North and South is great. A good book for the nook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent book, but horrible version. As other reviewers have su

Excellent book, but horrible version. As other reviewers have suggested,
this is a great book if you're a pride and prejudice fan. The story is
quite similar, but the plot a bit darker (which in my opinion makes the
ending much better). Be prepared though, the ending of this book is more
abrupt in my opinion than Jane Austen's novels. The only reason this
particular book is getting 3 stars instead of 5 is because of how poor
the e-book translation was. At first there were several typos, but they
were such that you could read right through without hardly noticing, but
as the book went on the typos took over entire sentences and paragraphs
and vital parts of the story were not readable. Paragraphs were in
Italian, Portugese, and French and not readable. Even at the end there
were vital places that weren't readable. My advice: find another free
version or splurge on for-sale version which likely has fewer typos.
This book is worth paying some money for.

Good story but lots of grammar errors

I really liked the story but the grammar errors were kinda annoying. Overall i would recommend. If you like jane ausren then you will like this book.

Amazing book

This copy is relatively free of errors and the story is delightful. If you are a fan of jane austen you must read this book and you wnt be sorry!