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Book Review
Jun. 4th, 2005 10:22 pmNorth and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
This was rather different from the 19th century British novels I've read previously. Centering around intelligent and spirited Margaret Hale, it had the usual middle-class family setting and the usual romance/marriage adventures. However, once the action moves to the northern mill-town of Milton, the book also becomes very concerned with the effects of industrialization, particularly in the relationships between the mill owners and the workers. This relationship is explored through Maragaret's relationships with the working-class Higgins family and through her relationship with John Thornton, one of the town's mill-owners. As these relationships play out, Margaret's understanding of and attitudes towards the working class, mercantile activity, and the mill towns themselves grow and change. It's extremely intersting, both as a look at the economic conditions of the 19th century factory towns, and as parallel to issues concerning the modern corporate world.
by Elizabeth Gaskell
This was rather different from the 19th century British novels I've read previously. Centering around intelligent and spirited Margaret Hale, it had the usual middle-class family setting and the usual romance/marriage adventures. However, once the action moves to the northern mill-town of Milton, the book also becomes very concerned with the effects of industrialization, particularly in the relationships between the mill owners and the workers. This relationship is explored through Maragaret's relationships with the working-class Higgins family and through her relationship with John Thornton, one of the town's mill-owners. As these relationships play out, Margaret's understanding of and attitudes towards the working class, mercantile activity, and the mill towns themselves grow and change. It's extremely intersting, both as a look at the economic conditions of the 19th century factory towns, and as parallel to issues concerning the modern corporate world.
