Book Description
One of the less familiar of Mrs. Gaskell's novels, Ruth was in its own time a cause celebre which not only contributed substantially to its author's growing reputation but also won the approval of a number of her distinguished contemporaries.The text used for this edition is based upon that
of the first edition published in 1853. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

resembles common mistakes & the strenght of society
the story of that girl, and that "mistake" and how 90% of the world closes their door, and turns their back

Ruth review
I have read most of Elizabeth Gaskell's books, and like some of her others, this one starts out slow, but builds in interest towards the middle. You really empathize with the main character, and the harsh judgement she receives is shocking by today's standards. The book provided a lot of food for thought and was an enjoyable read.

Evocative of life in 19th century England
"Ruth" is one of five books written by Elizabeth Gaskell.It deals with aspects of English life in the first half of the 19th Century.

It is difficult to say much about the plot itself without giving away important details of the story.Suffice to say that Ruth, who is an orphan and from a humble background is put through the wringer of life.

The characters and their actions are often exaggerated to the point of almost being caricatures to modern readers.But this style maximises the emotional content of many of the incidents described in the book and is very typical of "romantic" English literature of the era. The same can be said of Dickens, Thackeray and Jane Austen.

Extended descriptive passages and the drawing-out of emotional scenes can be irritating because it slows down the narrative and is too obvious a device to hook the discerning reader.Presumably readers of the day loved this stuff - much as modern readers go for similar depictions on TV and in print.

However, the narrative itself is gripping, especially towards the end of the book when events reach their climax and the various threads of the plot are drawn together.There are exciting twists and turns in the plot, almost like a modern thriller.This is where Gaskell shines - she is a very skilful constructor of intricate story plots.It is difficult to put the book down as we near the end of the story.

Another area in which Gaskell shines is her depiction of characters, even though they might be standard "types" to readers of the day.

Mr Bellingham, who later changed his name to Mr Donne, is a central figure in the story, yet he is only superficially dealt with by the author.For much of the book he is just a ghostly presence.This appears to me to be such a glaring fault that I assume the handling of Bellingham/Donne was a conscious decision of Gaskell.

I can only assume that by making him such a shadowy, almost trivial, figure Gaskell makes the contrast with Ruth's trials and tribulations even more stark and harrowing.If that is indeed the case, then this book becomes more stylistically sophisticated and modern than a mere tear-jerking romance.

"Ruth", like all Gaskell's books is an enjoyable read for the story alone.One can skip over much of the purple descriptive bits without any loss.The book also gives a valuable insight into attitudes and ways of life in the early 19th century.This will interest readers who love history.Fiction such as this can illuminate social history.

Controversial subject (for Victorian readers)
Mrs. Gaskell tackled a very controversial theme in this novel (having a child out of wedlock) and shocked many of her contemporary readers. Ruth Hilton, a dressmaker, is seduced by the wealthy Henry Bellingham; he deserts her, after which she bears his child.Taken in by the kindly Thurston Benson and his sister under the pretense of being a young widow, Ruth gains employment as governess to the Bradshaw family. When Bellingham returns and Ruth will have nothing to do with him, the self-righteous Mr. Bradshaw learns the truth of her past and dismisses her. In a disappointing (though perhaps obligatory for the time) ending, when Bellingham becomes ill with cholera, Ruth goes to his aid, contracts the disease, and dies. Many have questioned why Mrs. Gaskell had to have Ruth die, and it does seem unnecessary, except that throughout the book Ruth has been portrayed almost as perfect as an angel, and perhaps it was to the angels she needed to send her. The most human character (as opposed to typecasts, as most of the others are) is Sally, the Benson's servant girl; she is funny, brutally honest, and wonderfully practical, especially in her dealings with Ruth (the scene where she crops Ruth's hair to make her look like the widow she is claiming to be is delightful). Mrs. Gaskell's purpose in writing the book was to generate sympathy for women who were victims of unscrupulous men; forty years later Thomas Hardy wrote a similar themed novel, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES. Ruth and Tess are twin characters in many ways. It's an interesting slice-of-life from the mid-Victorian period.

Least Favorite Gaskell Novel
I was surprisingly unimpressed with this book. So far I have read three of Gaskell's other novels -- North and South, Wives and Daughters and Mary Barton. I loved them all. Gaskell's faith, the elegant strength of her heroines, and the attention that she pays to the details of daily life kept me interested and engaged. Gaskell is just such a passionate and compassionate writer.I have loved the way she combines social commentary with fine story telling. But while Ruth starts out just as strong as her other books, I was bored a third of the way through. Ruth's long suffering, her sobbing and sighing and crying through her desertion by Mr. Bellingham, her motherhood, and her stuggle to overcome her sin drove me to distraction. I found this character annoying and insipid. While her early innocence was refreshing I really didn't feel there was much character development after that point. In fact, Ruth seems less like a real person than any of the other characters in Gaskell's novels. If you have never read anything by this author I would not recommend this book as the place to start. Any of the others is a better choice ... Read more

Book Description
For much of her own century, Elizabeth Gaskell was recognized as a voice of Victorian convention--the loyal wife, good mother, and respected writer--a reputation that led to her steady decline in the view of twentieth-century literary critics. Recent scholars, however, have begun to recognize that Mrs. Gaskell's high standing in Victorian society allowed her to effect change in conventional ideology. Linda K. Hughes and Michael Lund focus this reevaluation on issues pertaining to the Victorian literary marketplace.

Victorian Publishing and Mrs. Gaskell's Work portrays an elusive and self-aware writer whose refusal to grant authority to a single perspective even while she recirculated the fundamental assumptions and debates of her era enabled her simultaneously to fulfill and deflect the expectations of the literary marketplace. While she wrote for money, producing periodical fiction, major novels, and nonfiction, Mrs. Gaskell was able to maintain a tone of warmth and empathy that allowed her to imagine multiple social and epistemological alternatives. Writing from within the established rubrics of gender, narrative, and publication format, she nevertheless performed important cultural work. ... Read more

Book Description
Identifies biographies, newly discovered correspondence, critical works, and other bibliographies. An extensive subject index provides easy access to 350 entries. ... Read more

Book Description
Elizabeth Gaskell's Use of Color in Her Industrial Novels and Short Stories presents Gaskell's incorporation of Ruskin's moral theory of color to set the tone in her tales as she illustrates the dreary, monotonous existence of nineteenth century industrial workers. Wildt demonstrates the use of various shades, tints, and hues of color to set moral tone, express character feelings, and to foreshadow events as Gaskell establishes and sustains mood in her short stories, and to a greater extent, in her industrial novels. She points out the use of color for foreshadowing events, expressing character's feelings in defining character in "Mary Barton, North and South," and "Ruth". Focusing on Gaskell's repeated use of the storm cloud motif, Wildt notes its presence on physical and emotional levels to illustrate the bleakness of the trapped condition of working women in the mid-nineteenth century, and that it anticipates Ruskin's future use of "The Storm Cloud." ... Read more

Book Description
It is with sheer delight that we follow the activities and development of this lady of high principles and prejudice, whose kind heart wins over a seemingly unrelenting nature.Moving and frightening scenes of the French Revolution also appear in this remarkable narrative. Five 90-minute cassettes. ... Read more

Book Description
A was powerfully moving novel of a young woman caught between the attractions of two very different men, Sylvia’s Lovers is set in the 1790s in an English seaside town. England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their victims is a whaling harpooner named Charley Kinraid, whose charm and vivacity have captured the heart of Sylvia Robson. But Sylvia’s devoted cousin, Philip Hepburn, hopes to marry her himself and, in order to win her, deliberately withholds crucial information—with devastating consequences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

History's Cold Shadow
In this bleak novel Elizabeth Gaskell deftly weaves a dark thread of history into her narrative tapestry.While war hovers on the margins of the novel, no one is left unaffected by its horror.After a sometimes painfully slow setup of domestic life in the seaside town of Monkshaven in the first third of the book, the sense of doom grows increasingly palpable.Sylvia, the novel's heroine, is isolated by her supposedly protective domestic sphere, but Gaskell shatters the delicate domestic circle that surrounds her.While Sylvia is left to bear emotional scars, becoming an impassive, hardened woman, Charley Kinraid, her true love, returns from war a ghost, haunting the margins of Monkshaven to hide his terrible physical scars.The full realization of the blight on Sylvia's life comes when the novel spirals down to its inevitable conclusion, where even reconciliation and understanding brings a powerful sense of loss. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
A portrait inexplicably turned to the wall ... a mysterious child who lives on the freezing moors ... a doppelganger brought to life by a woman's bitter curse. These are some of the eerie elements Elizabeth Gaskell uses to masterful effect in Gothic Tales.

A writer best known for books about middle-class life in country villages and the urban social problems of Victorian England, Gaskell was fascinated by the dualities in women's lives, by the tyranny men wield and the revenge women exact, and by the merging of fact and fiction, not only in literature but in everyday lives. In these nine spine-tingling tales, she adds another layer of intrigue: the abrupt appearance of the supernatural in the most ordinary of settings and the havoc it plays on human frailties. ... Read more

Book Description
A gently comic picture of life in an English country town in the mid-nineteenth century, Cranford describes the small adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Rich with humor and filled with vividly memorable characters—including the dignified Lady Glenmire and the duplicitous showman Signor Brunoni—Cranford is a portrait of kindness, compassion, and hope.Download Description
In this classic portrait of life in a quiet English village of the early nineteenth century, Elizabeth Gaskell writes with wit and affection of the foibles, follies and endearing eccentricities of its occupants as they struggle to maintain standards in their genteel poverty. This witty and poignant comedy, with its ironic observations on the pretensions of class is told through the eyes of a young woman who befriends the elderly ladies of Cranford. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Cranford: Fading fairy-tale village
Not a novel, not an anthology of short stories, Cranford is perhaps best described as a cohesive series of vignettes. Recounted by a young woman of about 30 from the city of Drumble [Manchester], these stories depict family, friendship, and love lost and found in a village dominated by poor but genteel spinsters and widows. ". . . all the holders of houses, above a certain rent, are women." Small, rural, and elitist in its way, Cranford is a place out of time, where faded fashions and proprieties still matter.

Gaskell begins Cranford with a series of descriptive statements. Some are accurate, while others prove to be ironic. For example, "Although the ladies of Cranford know all each other's proceedings, they are exceedingly indifferent to each other's opinions." While discovering Cranford and the Amazons who possess it, we also learn the dry perspective and voice of the narrator, who clearly loves the village while gently highlighting the foibles of its female inhabitants. "But I will answer for it, the last gigot, the last tight and scanty petticoat in wear in England, was seen in Cranford--and seen without a smile."

Like Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, Cranford is focused on gender roles and the different lives of women and men. The sexes share many characteristics; Captain Brown and Peter Jenkyns display the thoughtful, neighborly solicitude associated with women (with Peter going so far as to don a woman's dress), while Miss Jenkyns (the woman Peter impersonates) exhibits a manly will and resolution. It is the opportunities they have and the way in which they live that separates the sexes. Captain Brown, Peter, and Signor Brunoni have traveled and seen some of the world, and have even influenced it, while Miss Jenkyns, Miss Matty, Miss Price, the narrator, and their friends are constrained by their gender, gentility, and social code to hearth and home. Here, they perform their small household tasks, including ensuring that their maidservants are not disturbed or distracted by "followers," or interested young men. The social code that prevents any of them from working in "trade" also determines the hours that can be spent outside the home. "Then there were rules and regulations for visiting and calls . . . 'from twelve to three are our calling-hours.'"

In such a small, interconnected village, everything that happens is noteworthy, and every decision is important if the occasionally cruel social order is to be maintained. "The whole town knew and kindly regarded Miss Betty Barker's Alderney," whose fall into a lime-pit warrants Captain Brown's advice, "Get her a flannel waistcoat and flannel drawers . . .," so the narrator can ask the reader incredulously, "Do you ever seen cows dressed in grey flannel in London?" Miss Matty's decision not to marry against her family's wishes keeps the peace at great personal cost, and her wistful decision to allow Martha to have a follower recompenses her later when the outside world intrudes into her realm with its ugly realities--one of the many signs that Cranford must and will change. When Lady Glenmire renounces her title and takes the name of Mrs. Hoggins upon her remarriage, Cranford reels with shock and dismay, and it takes Peter Jenkyns, and his broader perspective from India, to reconcile the village and its de facto leader, Mrs. Jamieson, with the new ways.

The narrator, who divides her time between her father in the progressive world of Drumble and the slowly and reluctantly changing Cranford, finds herself under the village's influence. As an observer, she describes the complex set of rules that governs Cranford society and the social slights they necessitate, not without a sense of regret. She is aware of the absurdity of Cranford society's beliefs and behavior combined with expediency, such as the occasion of Miss Betty Barker's party for the Cranford elite. "'Oh, gentility!' thought I, 'can you endure this last shock?'" when "all sorts of good things for supper" appear. ". . . we thought it better to submit graciously, even at the cost of our gentility--which never ate suppers in general--but which, like most non-supper-eaters, was particularly hungry on all special occasions." More seriously, she pities Miss Matty and her lost love and life, and like her other well-meaning friends determines that she shall be happy.

With the arrival of Signor Brunoni and the ensuing panic over the perceived crime wave that seems to hit Cranford, the narrator loses some of her wryness and seems to become nearly as frightened by the rumors of strangers and robberies as her elderly friends. It is the new outsider, Lady Glenmire, who "never had heard of any actual robberies; except that two little boys had stolen some apples from Farmer Benson's orchard and that some eggs had been missed on a market-day off Widow Hayward's stall." Even while caught up in the panic, however, "I could not help being amused at Jenny's position . . .." When she speaks of Jenny's ghost, the narrator says, ". . . for there was no knowing how near the ghostly head and ears might be . . .."

Through the narrator, who seems to represent Gaskell's own perspective, Cranford pokes gentle fun at a time and place that had already become a fairy tale-like setting, where goodness outdoes pettiness, justice prevails over setbacks and hardships, and even the prodigal son (or prince) can return to set things right. In Cranford, Gaskell reminds the reader of a recent past that is both amusing and moving, a time to look upon fondly but without regret for the changes that Peter and the marriage of Lady Glenmire/Mrs. Hoggins bring about. The one constant in life is change, and in Cranford change is at least as much for the better as for the worse.

A small gem for Gaskell fans
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, follows the lives of a group of women living in a small English town.

I enjoyed this book very much. More of a collection of stories than a novel, it reminded me of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, to whom Mrs. Gaskell pays particular homage in more than one place in the book.

Like most Victorian novels, the humor is droll and significant attention is played to social class. But it is also a quick, somewhat easy read, adjectives that don't usually come to mind when describing works of this era.

This is a book about women, a point that Gaskell makes clear in the first line:

"In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women."

And while the middle-aged spinsters of Cranford are a far cry from the women warriors who came to the assistance of the Greeks at Troy, the stereotypical rich, handsome man who comes to marry the woman in distress and therefore saves the day is absent from this story.

Told through the eyes of Mary Smith, the two main characters of the novel, Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Matty, put me very much in the mind of the Miss Brownings in Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters. The foibles and misadventures of these two sisters and their circle of friends often had me laughing out loud.

This is a delightful book. Written at a time when a woman's worth was often tied to how well she married, the gently humorous but dignified way in which Gaskell treats her characters in this novel is lovely.

Full of charm and wit
Delightful, surely one of the most charming novels ever written. Using the lightest of touches, Mrs. Gaskell pokes fun at the simple people who inhabit the provincial community of Cranford in rural England in the 1840s, a village we are told at the beginning that is curiously "in possession of the Amazons": its male inhabitants nowhere to be found. Told in the form of reports by a frequent visitor to the village (Mary Smith) from a more cosmopolitan place, we are made privy to the disappointments, hopes, fears, and affronts of a number of the female residents, particularly Miss Matty Jenkyns and Mrs. Jamieson. All are related humorously, some wildly so. My favorite scenes include Mrs. Jamieson's defense of Samuel Johnson over Captain Brown's preference for Dickens's Boz and the sad story of Peter Jenkyns who is insulted by his father and runs away to join the navy. But every chapter offers its delights, and it's easy to see, as Frank Swinnerton mentions in the introduction, how many people at one time knew the book by heart. Long a best seller in the Everyman's Library, it's sad to see the book not included in the recent reissue of 100 of that library's most popular books, a gross oversight for sure.

Victorian Zen
Sherwood Anderson once described life as a "history of moments".Miss Gaskell has created in Cranford a glimpse into a dying culture of the more egalitiarian rural Bitish Yoemanry of the 18th century collapsing under the urbanization of the society and with a more repressive capitalism to claim the lives and souls of the youth leaving the village for better lives.Goldsmith's the "Deserted Village" comes to mind.

The story is told from the lives of elderly mostly female, spinster as well as widowed community of genteel rural poverty- self imposed and otherwise.Quaint yet, but with vinegary pithiness of death, stoicism and social veneer, in other words real life.This is civilized 19th century social writing at its best, like a journalistic Austen. The unnamed narrator is a wise insightful character commenting on the eccentric and slightly mad village women who make up this world.The rivalry between Captain Brown and Miss Jenkyns based upon their literary preference of Dr. Johnson vs Charles Dickens is especially amusing considering that Cranford first appeared in Dicken's magazine, "Household Words". Endearing and haunting- much more than its surface appearance.

A pleasant read for Gaskell fans
Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives & Daughters and North & South have recently become two of my favorite books, so it stood to reason that I should check out her other novels. When I read Cranford I already knew that it wouldn't have a coherent plot, so I wasn't disappointed about that. What I found was a short but slow read made charming because of Gaskell's humor and elegant style of writing.

Plotwise, it reminded me of L.M. Montgomery's stories, because Montgomery usually features young girls being brought up by dominant spinsters in small towns. Cranford doesn't include children of any variety, but similar quirks of aging ladies and domestic life are depicted. Of course, Gaskell's writing is not quite as saccharine as Montgomery's.

Men are so rare in this novel that they are great curiosities, to the main characters and to the reader. My only complaint is that the narrator (I think her name was Mary Smith) did not talk more about herself. Was she destined to grow old without love just like her friend Miss Mattie?

I was tempted to give Cranford 4 stars just because it is Gaskell, but it is not a book I would read more than once or twice. I can't imagine that I would have enjoyed as much if I hadn't already been obsessed with the author. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
`she tried to settle that most difficult problem for women, how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how much might be set apart for freedom in working.'North and South is a novel about rebellion.Moving from the industrial riots of discontented millworkers through to the unsought passions of a middle-class woman, and from religious crises of conscience to the ethics of naval mutiny, it poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience.Through the story of Margaret Hale, the middle-class southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skilfully explores issues of class and gender in the conflict between Margaret's ready sympathy with the workers and her growing attraction to the charismatic mill ownder, John Thornton.This new revised and expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

An excelent book to any person
You have to get familiar with the characters and then you slowly star to love them all.
At the beggining I felt sorry to poor Mr Lennox,he was a Miss Hale's friend but he took her love for granted and he was rejected by her.
Miss Hale is a nineteen years old girl who has always lived in a confortable way with her parents but some day Mr Hale finds that his faith has change and he can not continue in the church with such doubts and they decided to move to the north of England.
Mrs Hale gets sick because the air and the rhythm or life in such a place is very hard to face however the family find a house where to live and a new way to start all over. They meet Mr John Thornton a mill's owner who wants to become a more educated person learning some literature now that Mr Hale has become a tutor in his new hometown.
The prejudices Miss Hale shows for him at the beggining and the tough way of Mr Thornton made them fell uneasy every time they meet however this are the very things that make them get closer and realize that north and south can not be so different after all and that the things one place lacks can be fulfill by the other place.
It is a masterpiece.I was so glad I bought this incredible good book.
I red it and just want to read it again.

A Botch. Not as Good as the Splendid 2004 BBC Miniseries.
The best thing about Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" may be that it inspired the superlative 2004 BBC miniseries by the same name. In fact, the miniseries was so good the day I finished watching it I began reading Gaskell's novel.

Given its failings, it is miraculous that director Brian Percival, writer Sandy Welch, Martin Phipps, who wrote the score, and the entire excellent cast were able to create such a stunning miniseries out of this less than stellar novel.

"North and South" has its appeal. If you are interested in class relations in Manchester, England during the Industrial Revolution, and the transition from an agrarian culture to a mercantile one, you have to read this book. And, if you are one of us who was stung by the "North and South" bug thanks to the BBC miniseries, nothing will stop you from reading this novel.

But if you are craving a richly worded, expansively populated, nineteenth century novel, by all means read Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, and their fellow English-language writers in America -- Twain, Alcott -- before you read Gaskell's "North and South."

It's a botch. Gaskell's talent shines through, but her need for a good editor is evident on every page. There are obvious errors, such as her giving one character two separate names. Pages and pages of footnotes and explanatory notes are meant to pick up where Gaskell fell short.

Characterizations of the main characters, Margaret and Thornton, are unforgivably weak. Margaret never became a fully fledged character. Oddly, minor characters -- Mr. Bell and Dixon, a maid -- are much stronger.

The central relationship, between Margaret and John Thornton, is underfed to the point of anorexia. Who are these two people? Why do they care about each other? Do they care about each other? They don't come across as fully rounded human beings at all, but as didactic cut-outsGaskell has trumped up to sell an idea -- and a fine idea it is -- of class and lifestyle reconciliation during a time of traumatic shifts in English traditional life.

Transitions are handled amazingly poorly. Climactic confrontations thud -- or, worse, tinkle -- on the page. Tension is mentioned between two characters, and suddenly you realize that they are in the same room, and, and, and ... nothing happens.

Gaskell constantly -- on almost each page -- makes references to other literature, high and low, familiar and obscure, and much too much of it simply middlebrow. Again, the reader is left to leaf through pages of explanatory notes to penetrate these allusions.

These allusions suggest literary laziness on Gaskell's part. Rather than animating a unique, living, breathing, human being in whom the reader can invest, Gaskell tells us that a given character is like the Biblical Vashti or like Cleopatra.

All these allusions to other literature, and use of allusions to do the work of creating characters or atmosphere that Gaskell's writing is not doing, prevent the reader from ever experiencing the most elemental of literary pleasures -- entering another world. Rather than entering another world when reading Gaskell's "North and South," one enters an annotated Anthology of World Literature. The book tastes of leftovers.

One of the most poignant moments in the BBC miniseries occurs when Mr. Thornton, watching Margaret depart from him, wishes that she would turn her head and look at him one last time. This moment pulses, it feels thrillingly inhabited and spontaneously alive. All distance of time, class, dialect, between the viewer and the 19th century gentleman in the high collar melts. You're certain you've felt the same thing when watching a loved one depart, even if you never have.

In the novel, this scene is crafted with all the subtlety of a putty knife. It's stiff, and it's dead. Here's a quote, from page 399: "...she kept rigidly to her resolution but in the respect and high regard which she had hoped would have ever made him willing, in the spirit of Gerald Griffin's beautiful lines, 'To turn and look back when thou hearest the sound of my name.'"

Be honest, now; don't tell me that that is good writing.

Again, the book has its charms. The BBC miniseries made me fall in love with these characters, and I had to read the book just as a way to avoid letting go of them.

But I wish Mrs. Gaskell had had a better editor, to eliminate the chaff in this book, and burnish the worthy passages that are here to shine as brightly as the good intentions behind their creation warranted.

"brutalised both as to his pleasures and his pains"
North and South is a very ambitious novel, and the fact that it has flaws in the execution do not detract from its successes.

It is, first of all, a social novel. It explores the differences between the industrialized north of England and the older more agricultural life in the south. The characters are all gripped by the hand of change-- changing religious beliefs, changing relationships between master and servant, changing expectations of family life and changing socio-economic conditions. What Gaskell does very well in North and South is forefront these critical themes. Since the novel is also a love story, it would have been easy to use the social aspects of the novel as nothing but pretty backdrop. Instead, Gaskell places it front and center-- to the point where occasionally the relationship between Margaret and John feels like nearly an afterthought. I like the emphasis-- it saves the novel from being a Pride & Prejudice retread. It may, however, account for some of the oddities of pacing noted by other reviewers.

As a reader, I really love the small moments in the novel. There is a wonderful scene when Margaret realizes that her habit of visiting the worthy poor is much less acceptable in the industrial north. She recoils when her offer to visit a sick neighbor girl is seen as condescending and possibly unwanted. That small moment captures volumes both about the character of Margaret and about the world in which she lives.

This is the third book by Elizabeth Gaskell that I have read. I believe that it is the best of the three (the others being Mary Barton and Cranford). Considering how much I enjoyed the other two novels, this is very high praise. I would recommend North and South to anyone interested in the social novels of the Victorian period, historical fiction with a focus on labour issues, or works that critiqued the role of women in Victorian society.

It is a moving, entertaining and thought-provoking book.

Surprisingly modern tale of class conflict, management theory, and of course, love
I read the book, like many other reviewers here, after I had watched the brilliant BBC miniseries starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. I definitely agree with the comments of many reviewers here that you somehow seem to develop a finer appreciation of the nuances of both after doing that.

A lot of reviewers have covered the ground admirably on the story itself, so I won't go into too much detail on that. In addition to the fine development of plot and characters alike, what I found refreshing about the novel were:

a. Unlike a few other writers of her time, Elizabeth Gaskell focuses a lot more on the thought processes and feelings of the male characters in the novel. For example, you don't get to hear a lot of what Darcy or Edward Ferrars are thinking in Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, except almost tangentially. In sharp contrast, Mrs. Gaskell gives quite a detailed peep into what John Thornton and Richard Hale are thinking, throughout the novel. As someone who is always interested in the differences in thought processes between the sexes, I found this to be refreshingly different from other novels of the time.

b. Being in business, it was quite a new experience to read about John Thornton's evolution first as a business owner and then as a "leader", to use that overused term of today. Mrs. Gaskell appears to have a remarkably sophisticated understanding of both management and labor issues. The examples that stand out in my mind - John Thornton's increasing interest in exploring a better construct for labor-management relations beyond the mere "cash nexus" (towards the end of the novel), and his practice of building what we would call a business case today, as he asks Nicholas Higgins to put some figures together for the new cafeteria.

c. A valuable peep into the mores of the time - for example, despite being fond of Bessy Higgins, Margaret recoils in horror at the thought of visiting her after Bessy's death, a point glossed over in the BBC mini-series, - it gives you a rare insight into things like death and burial customs of the time,.

I must agree with a few other reviewers that the last few chapters seem a little rushed, but from an overall perspective, it is hard to beat this novel for its pure wholesome enjoyment value - more serious and deep than a Pride and Prejudice, and still light enough for people like me who cannot take Thomas Hardy. A definite five stars!

For Any Romantic Reader!
I loved this book!I liked how the chapters were short, so I could read it in snippets.Elizabeth Gaskell is amazing.I loved the characters and how well written the plot is. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

What was left unsaid...
While the definitive overall Brontes biography is Juliet Barker's 'The Brontes', and the various Bronte-related works of Edward Chitham are invaluable in their own right, this still stands as an important contribution to understanding the Brontes, and Charlotte above all.

Despite its flaws, and I agree with other reviewers, that this is a rather dark picture of events, Elizabeth wrote a detailed and very sympathetic account of Charlotte's life and her relationship to her family. Her inclusion of letter content, epecially in relation to Ellen Nussey, was somewhat self-edited, and the lack of references to the romantic friendship that so clearly existed between the two women, was probably Elizabeth's attempt to protect them.

For anyone who is interested in the truth of their passionate relationship, I highly recommend Elaine Miller's detailed essay 'Through All Changes and Through All Chances' from the book Not A Passing Phase, compiled by the Lesbian History Group. The letter excerpts that Elaine includes clearly indicate that Charlotte and Ellen not only loved each other, but that they jointly expressed a long-term desire to live together 'until Death'.

When Ellen Nussey wanted to publish her own 'The Story of the Brontes' which would have included many excerpts from the hundreds of letters that Charlotte had sent her, Arthur Nicholls blocked permission, as he owned copyright to the contents of the letters, even though Ellen owned the letters themselves. Nicholls - Charlotte's husband of only nine months - also destroyed all of the literally hundreds of letters from Ellen to Charlotte, and even tried to insist that Ellen destroy all of Charlotte's letters to her, during Charlotte's lifetime.

Elizabeth is clearly no fan of Nicholls, but that is hardly surprising in view of his destruction of so much of Charlotte's personal writing material.

For an insight into the lives of Charlotte and her family and the Haworth area in that time period, this is still and always will be an important book.

The Life of Charlotte Bronte? What life?
Have tried to read Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Jane Eyre several times but found it so depressing that I couldn't get through the first chapters.I thought it would be easier on tape which, to some extent it is. However, the content is no less depressing and tragic. The family live at Howarth Parsonage, an isolated place in the north of England. There are six children, two of whom die from tuberculosis and consumption in their school years; the mother dies young;the brother dies of alcoholism and Emily and Ann both die in their 20s. The tragedy is that of extraordinary talent snuffed out so early in life.
The majority of the book is taken up with the the lonely life of Charlotte and her selfish father, which, try as she might, Elizabeth Gaskell cannot make interesting. Charlotte's trips outside the confines of Howarth are few and far between but one very rarely hears her complain. She finally has a few years of married life before she too dies young. I have alway loved reading the Bronte sisters novels - this autobiography shows to what extent these girls live in their imagination and how rich those imaginations are. Being so isolated from society, reveals why their novels are so dark and and sinister - herein lies a book,but Elizabeth Gaskell is no psychoanalyst. A great friend and admirer of Charlotte Bronte, she prefers to emphasize her virtues and forebearance in the face of adversity and gives us little more than a hagiography of her friend. There is very little analysis, if any, of Charlotte's works; thankfully, later scholarship delves more deeply into the intricate minds of Charlotte, and her two sisters.
Being from the North of England myself, I would have perhaps felt more "connected" if the narrator had been English. Elizabeth Gaskell was from Manchester, England, and to hear Flo Gibson (as good a narrator as she might be otherwise) trying to get across the English northern accent was quite painful.
I would not recommend this work, especially if one is looking for any kind of critical analysis of Jane Eyre, Shirley or Villette.

At the intersection of time and eternity
Mrs. Gaskell understood a man's or woman's life to be lived within a social and natural context -- and her deployment of anecdotes and impressions of the North of England in the early pages of this book is captivating.But she also understood us to be souls, present to but distinct from God.Hence, even though in a few instances Gaskell's facts may been correctible (which the editor has done for us in this Penguin Classics edition), she is concerned with truth, and this gives readers the opportunity (rarely offered by modern entertainments) to escape from the trivial.

A Beautiful Biography!
A very nicely written biography by Mrs. Gaskell about the life of her friend Charlotte Bronte, although most of the content was made up of letters written either by or to Charlotte Bronte rather than Mrs. Gaskell's own writings. Still this is a very concise book containing mostly everything that an ordinary reader, or well, a beginner of the Bronte novels, should know about this famous family. Nonetheless at some point of the book, I do find Mrs. Gaskell a bit too subjective, especially when it comes to the depiction of Charlotte's brother Branwell Bronte and his downfall. But consider the fact that this book was written only within one and a half year, with Mrs. Gaskell herself alone traveling all the way from Manchester to Haworth, and then to Brussel, doing all the necessary researches and interviews on her own, I must say that this is just an awesome piece of work!! And just as what Patrick Bronte himself had said about this biography, 'It is every way worthy of what one Great Woman, should have written of Another...it ought to stand, and will stand in the first rank, of Biographies, till the end of time'.

One more word though. From a more scholarly point of view, however, I think so far the 'best' biography on the Brontes should be Juliet Barker's 'The Brontes'. If, after reading this biography written by Mrs. Gaskell, you still want to know more about the Brontes, then I will say: go and buy this other book by Juliet Barker and you definitely will never regret it!

SAD BUT BRILLIANT
Such sad lives were led by the the Bronte's, loneliness, loss, despair, all were experienced and fed into the imaginations on charlotte, emily and anne. This book is a brilliant book by E C Gaskell (who i normally dontreally like), it is basically a collection of letters by charlotteand agreat narrative, when speaking of the deaths of emily, anne and charlotte,i actually felt tears in my eyes! ... Read more

Book Description
Hardly the quiet conservator of the Victorian status quo she is often thought to be, Elizabeth Gaskell gravitated toward some of the most daunting subjects - prostitution, industrial conflict, evolutionary theory - that a nineteenth century woman writer could represent in her fiction. In Dissembling Fictions, Deirdre d' Albertis uncovers the tactics of disguise which Gaskell skilfully employed in order to evade the prescribed notions of what a woman writer should be. D'Albertis unveils the complex patterns existent in Gaskell's works, and examines her use of dissembling as a narrative practice. An illuminative study which also proposes that feminist readers take a fresh look at the very idea of a separate tradition for women writers in light of Gaskell's example, Dissembling Fictions is a thorough and appealing analysis of an underappreciated female writer whose influence is still felt today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The critical work to read on Gaskell
This is an excellent, finely tuned study of Gaskell. It investigates Gaskell as an artist caught up in ambivalent, conflicting goals. When so much work on Gaskell flattens her into an unbridled politico, this book traces the complex relationship between her social intentions and her artistic ones. And it reads all the novels but _Cranford_, including the neglected _Sylvia's Lovers_.

why we love dierdre d'albertis
There aren't enough books about Elizabeth Gaskell. D'Albertis has stunningly filled what heretofore had been a Gaskell void. Yea, Dierdre!This sort of scholarship is rarely seen amongst Victorian scholars,particulalrly female ones. Fabulous!

A new voice for a new era in Gaskell studies
The burgeoning interest in Elizabeth Gaskell has at last produced an author with the cogent prose style and analytical brilliance to match the subject. Brava d'Albertis! It reminds me of the impact of reading Axel's Castle in 1931. ... Read more

Book Description
This is Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, a widely acclaimed work based on the actual murder, in 1831, of a progressive mill owner.It follows Mary Barton, daughter of a man implicated in the murder, through her adolescence, when she suffers the advances of the mill owner, and later through
love and marriage.Set in Manchester, between 1837-42, it paints a powerful and moving picture of working-class life in Victorian England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Lesser-known doesn't mean it isn't as good!
This book shows the opposite side of life of Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters.Where Molly Gibson (another girl sharing her name appears in Mary Barton, too!) deals with a pettish and jealous stepmother and the perils of moving in society, Mary Barton's father worked the looms that perhaps provided the Gibsons with their fine dresses.
Unlike Dickens in Hard Times, Gaskell does not dwell so much on the physical aspects of Manchester (OK, Dickens didn't actually write about Manchester, but the city he used *was* Manchester) and their symbolism of moral and societal pollution, but she shows the effects of man's inhumanity to man.Her morality is quietly moving, not dogmatic.The workers' agitations and subsequent deadly repercussions are dealt with in a firm but understading light.While she condemns the act, the motivating factors (i.e. workers' treatment) can be understood.
Gaskell's working class book isn't as slick or symbolic as, say Germinal, but it is effective.Although the love story in itself is moving, we can also see it as the nobility of human spirit no matter where it lives or works.While the novel is titled Mary Barton, Mary serves as a tool to teach us and reprove us.
I highly recommend Wives and Daughters as well--Gaskell has surely matured and her dialogue is sharp and social criticism even more biting.

A keen observer of humanity
After watching the 2005 BBC TV-adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel "North and South", I was intrigued to go back and read the novel.I liked it so much, that I wanted to read more, and so found "Mary Barton".In both novels, I was impressed with Elizabeth Gaskell's keen insight into the human spirit - despair, doubt, kindness, love, compassion, hopelessness, loyalty, frivolity, and most of everything in between.She has a rare talent to create believable male and female characters (with their inherent differences in perception and interpretation) at all walks of life, and to inspire compassion and understanding for all her characters' actions.The plot is largely divided between mystery and romance, both of which are done well.This is definitely a book I would recommend to fellow Austen fans!

Compared to the majority of modern novels, her writing has more of a leisurely pace to it and she takes the time to describe the emotional inner workings of her characters as much as she devotes to outward plot development.The frequent historical or literary references not immediately at a current-day reader's fingertips are explained well in this edition's notes at the end for those who want to know (like me).

Historically, this book is a fascinating treatise of the working classtoil, life, and death in the mid-1800s in Manchester, England, the rise of trade unions, and the trouble attendant therewith.Gaskell's astute observations about the living conditions of the poor in that day and agemake for a compelling and thought-provoking read.It is hard to leave her books not feeling that the two opposite points of view of masters and men can be true, and that compassion might go a long way to bridge the gap.

dissappointed and read only half of it
I ordered the book after watching "north and south" tv adaptation
to another of elisabeth gaskell's book. i was curious to know more from this writer.
but this one was nothing similar:
the plot is slow, including irrelevant and too detailed side stories.
the main characters are not clear and are very distant to the reader,
in a way it's hard to care for them. so it was easy leaving the book in the middle.

"A Story of Manchester Life"
Although this is not Gaskell's best novel, it is still well done and contains quite a bit of drama and romance. Much of the book concentrates on life in a manufacturing town, however, the love story has a prominent place. The characters in this book are lovable and fallable, as usual in Gaskell's work, and overall very realistic. This novel is set up much like "North and South" yet not as well put together, and with quite different characters. There is the struggle between masters and men and a love affair unrequitted on the female end with family and friends dropping like flies on account of mental or physical anxiety. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes Gaskell, Dickens, and the time period of early industrialization in England.
As to the edition, Everyman's Library always makes a nice hard copy. It includes a biography and timeline of work as well as the author's preface and an introduction by Jenny Uglow.

Mary Barton
Set in the industrial city of Manchester in northern England, this is one of Mrs. Gaskell's "social novels" (NORTH AND SOUTH was another), in which she attacked the harsh treatment of factory workers by the owners. It being a novel, there is also a love story. Mary Barton, daughter of a soured mill-hand, attracts the attention of two men: Henry Carson, son of one of the mill owners, and Jem Wilson, a worker. She chooses Carson (a big mistake, of course). Later Carson is killed and Wilson is suspected of the crime with jealousy as his motive. But Mary learns that her father, John, is actually the murderer, and she spends a good portion of the second half of the book trying to prove Wilson's innocence (she now realizes her mistake in picking Carson over her true feelings of love for Wilson) without implicating her father. John Barton is wracked with guilt, however, and makes a deathbed confession to Carson's father that redeems him. It's an energetic book, and the story moves forward swiftly. The trial scenes are especially stirring. MARY BARTON was one of the first novels set exclusively among the working classes, and the book was highly regarded by the public and critics alike (though the Manchester mill owners protested against it). ... Read more

Book Description
In the last few decades Elizabeth Gaskell has become a figure of growing importance in the field of Victorian literary studies. She produced work of great variety and scope in the course of a highly successful writing career that lasted for about twenty years from the mid-1840s to her unexpected death in 1865. The essays in this Companion draw on recent advances in biographical and bibliographical studies of Gaskell and cover the range of her impressive and varied output as a writer of novels, biography, short stories, and letters. The volume, which features well-known scholars in the field of Gaskell studies, focuses throughout on her narrative versatility and her literary responses to the social, cultural, and intellectual transformations of her time. This Companion will be invaluable for students and scholars of Victorian literature, and includes a chronology and guide to further reading. ... Read more

Book Description