North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
I saw this book first as a movie on YouTube, that BBC had developed & I fell in love. I loved how Richard Armitage & Daniela Denby-Ashe had made John Thorton & Margaret Hale come alive in the movie & it was just wonderful acting all around with a great story. So knowing full well that movies nowadays are never exactly what the book is, I went on the hunt to borrow it from a library, surprisingly for a classic novel, not many libraries have it.
The book in itself makes you pay attention, causes you not to focus on anything else, when you read the book, in a way thats good. North & South tells the story of the beginning of the industry revolution in the North of England. Your brought to the North by following Margaret Hale who has moved there from the South to begin again with her family & without knowing or acknowledging it, has found herself now in a position lower then she is use to & in a place that is nothing like her southern home or like London. Margaret grows up & you not only see the struggles that she goes through & the growth that is entitled for her, but also the life of the industry world in the beginning. When the working age was not 16, but 9; when during a time when cotton got caught in ones lungs, enough could kill; and during a time that many a men could find themselves through hard work with money that before the industry age might have been harder to work up to.
In this whole book though, Margaret is always on the brisk of realizing her femininity, & becoming in essence a feminist herself. As she begins to realize; strength & another world in Milton, she slowly begins to realize the whole of herself. In all this time though the good parts of her are always there. And it is those good parts that gradually bring around a Milton manufacturer, John Thorton to her side, not only to fall for her, but to also make his hard ways grow as well.
Though in this book when you think love is simple, Gaskell doesn't make it so, were other authors make love a yes & yes, she makes John Thorton & Margaret Hale work for it & doesnt prolong it for the reader either. This story of the beginning of the industry age, also tells of a new beginning for Margaret Hale & John Thorton. Of overcoming first impressions, pride, about humbling oneself, looking beyond what you see or what other people tell you, always knowing theres more then one side to a story, & knowing that even when you try to run, sometimes your leaving behind the one thing you need, the one thing you don't know was what you wanted.
As writing goes I really like this book & it was greatly done, as well as for the story & would suggest to anyone to read it. For many of us can relate to John Thorton & his Northern ways, but also to Margaret Hale & her stubborn, caring, adaptive, Southern ways.
Books Read: 15/20..