Audiobook · read by volunteers
North and South
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–1865)
Read by Ophelia Darcy, Mary Reagan, Jo, neelma, leonardswench, Polly, LC, intothelight, Hadje, elisavet · 52 chapters · 18 h 39
About the book
Margaret Hale grew up in the green, gentle south of England. When her father leaves the church and moves the family to the industrial north, she finds herself in a smoky mill town among people she finds harsh and alien. Gradually she learns to see what lies beneath. In Milton she meets Mr. Thornton, a proud and self-made manufacturer, and their meetings are marked by misunderstanding, argument and a very strong attraction. Elizabeth Gaskell sets a love story against the background of strikes, poverty and the changing face of Victorian England, and she gives both sides of the divide a fair hearing. Fifty-two recordings, nearly nineteen hours, offer a rich, humane and engrossing novel. Beneath the courtship runs a serious conversation about work, fairness and what people owe one another.
Introduction
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist who wrote about the lives of people in the industrial towns of Victorian England. North and South began to appear in instalments in 1854, and its title points to the contrast at its centre: the rural south, with its slower rhythms, and the manufacturing north, with its mills and its pace.
The story follows Margaret Hale, a young woman who must adapt to a new life far from her old home. Her relationships with the people of the northern town, especially with a mill owner and with a family of workers, raise questions about class, wages, loyalty and the relations between employers and employed. Gaskell does not make it simple. Each character is given reasons for how he or she acts, and the book is notable for the way it allows opposing views to be heard.
It is also a romance, and the pleasure of the book comes partly from watching two strong-minded people misjudge each other and slowly learn better. The novel ran in a magazine before appearing as a book in 1855, and its chapters are well paced, with good moments to pause.
This recording has fifty-two files and lasts about eighteen and a half hours. It was read by LibriVox volunteers. It is an excellent choice for those who enjoy Victorian fiction, social novels and stories of character, and for those who like a long book to settle into.
Public domain
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell died in 1865: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text