North and South

Elizabeth Gaskell, 1855

Victorian novels Courtship and marriage

Margaret Hale's move from a rural home to an industrial town unsettles her understanding of class and responsibility.

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Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by volunteers. Press Listen in the reader to hear each chapter as you read.

Length: 52 chapters
Reading time: About 12 hr 38 min
Words: 180,401

About the book

Margaret Hale begins among preparations for her cousin's wedding, looking towards a return to her own country home. Her family's circumstances instead bring a move to the industrial north. Different forms of work and dependence become part of her daily life.

Gaskell approaches social disagreement through relationships as well as argument. Margaret must learn how another place understands itself, while holding beliefs of her own. The novel's contrasts between homes, occupations and manners give questions about sympathy and authority a concrete setting in which they can be tested.

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Victorian novels Courtship and marriage

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Elizabeth Gaskell died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK.