North and South

Elizabeth Gaskell

Random House, May 5, 2010 - Fiction - 576 pages

'A really remarkable picture of the reality, as well as the prosperity, of northern industrial life, and an interesting examination of changing social conscience' Joanna Trollope

Milton is a sooty, noisy northern town centred around the cotton mills that employ most of its inhabitants. Arriving from a rural idyll in the south, Margaret Hale is initially shocked by the social unrest and poverty she finds in her new hometown. However, as she begins to befriend her neighbours, and her stormy relationship with the mill-owner John Thornton develops, she starts to see Milton in a different light.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JENNY UGLOW

Contents

• Haste to the Wedding: 1
• Roses and Thorns: 13
• The More Haste the Worse Speed: 23
• Doubts and Difficulties: 34
• Decision: 46
• Farewell: 60
• New Scenes and Faces: 68
• Home Sickness: 77
• Dressing for Tea: 89
• Wrought Iron and Gold: 94
• First Impressions: 104
• Morning Calls: 113
• A Soft Breeze in a Sultry Place: 120
• The Mutiny: 128
• Masters and Men: 134
• The Shadow of Death: 153
• What is a Strike?: 162
• Likes and Dislikes: 171
• Angel Visits: 181
• Men and Gentlemen: 194
• The Dark Night: 205
• A Blow and its Consequences: 214
• Mistakes: 230
• Mistakes Cleared Up: 238
• Mother and Son: 256
• Fruitpiece: 262
• Comfort in Sorrow: 270
• A Ray of Sunshine: 290
• Home at Last: 297
• Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot: 312
• Mischances: 324
• Peace: 330
• False and True: 336
• Expiation: 342
• Union Not Always Strength: 360
• Looking South: 373
• Promises Fulfilled: 385
• Making Friends: 400
• Out of Tune: 411
• The Journeys End: 427
• Alone Alone: 441
• Margarets Flittin: 454
• Ease Not Peace: 464
• Not All a Dream: 477
• Once and Now: 480
• Something Wanting: 503
• Neer To Be Found Again: 509
• Breathing Tranquillity: 516
• Changes at Milton: 523
• Meeting Again: 535
• Pack Clouds Away: 543

About the author

Elizabeth Gaskell was born on 29 September 1810 in London. She was brought up in Knutsford, Cheshire by her aunt after her mother died when she was two years old. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, who was a Unitarian minister like her father. After their marriage they lived in Manchester with their children. Elizabeth Gaskell published her first novel, Mary Barton, in 1848 to great success. She went on to publish much of her work in Charles Dickens's magazines, Household Words and All the Year Round. Along with short stories and a biography of Charlotte Brontė, she published five more novels including North and South (1855) and Wives and Daughters (1866). Wives and Daughters is unfinished as Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly of heart failure on 12 November 1865.

Bibliographic information

• Title: North and South; Vintage classics
• Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
• Contributor: Jenny Uglow
• Publisher: Random House, 2010
• ISBN: 1407090887, 9781407090887
• Length: 576 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics