This lesson is one of the many ways in which North and South is as relevant today as it was back in Gaskell’s lifetime.

The immense amount of character development in this novel is particularly apparent when you look at how many characters learn the lesson of community over class. One of my favorite aspects of this novel is the overall message it delivers: personal relationships can be more important than one’s social class. Little Mary Higgins humanizes the “Hands” that factory owners often disregarded as incompetent and lazy. I’d be amiss if I didn’t start by highlighting how well Gaskell addresses what is often known as the “social problem” in England during the nineteenth century. The novel’s focus on the plight of factory workers during this time period is fascinating, especially in regard to the strike and its effect on the Higgins family. Set in the fictional manufacturing town of Milton, this novel follows Margaret as she transitions from living in rural southern England to urban northern England.

Interestingly enough, Dickens is also credited with creating the title for this novel (in opposition to Gaskell, who wanted to title her work “Margaret Hale” after the protagonist). It’s fitting that this follows Dickens’ Hard Times on our summer reading list because Dickens was actually the editor of the magazine that Gaskell’s novel was initially serially published from September 1854 to January 1855. Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South is the second novel I had to read for the Victorian Literature tutorial I’m taking at Oxford during my first term.

North and south by elizabeth gaskell