Caroline Lucas mentioned this novel in her book Another England, as being part of the sort of cultural forces that can contribute to effect change in society. I have never read a book by Elizabeth Gaskell before. It is also sometime since I've read a Victorian novel, and I had actually forgotten how intensely they can write, with so much tiny heightened detail into inner worlds and dialogue.
This took me a while to re-adjust to, and I realised that for the task of getting into the world of North and South, I would have to devote considerable chunks of time to it. Otherwise I'd be doing it a diservice. This was not the sort of reading that could easily be digested and entertained in short snippets before slumber descends. And this was, in itself, revealing about the sentence structure of a lot of contemporary novel writing, which, generalising madly here, is more sparingly efficient in the journey getting to the nub of things. Though Victorian novelists often initially wrote for 'part-works' in magazines, brevity was never Gaskell's or the Victorian way of composition.
So this is a longer form style of writing, with lots on minor, but notable incident that slowly builds up an idea for what motivates a character. The central character here is Margaret, who feels like a sypher for Gaskell's approach to life. Margaret is a young woman, aloof, strongly self-opinionated and motivated by a sense of injustice, and the need to care for all humanity, regardless of wealth or status. Her father, the once Reverend Hales has had a mid life crisis, and unexpectedly resigned his parish. This entails the whole family moving from the quaint rural idyll of Helstone in the South, to the smoky industrial urbanity of Milton, in the North. The culture shock on all of them is evident from the start. Margaret's mother is seriously unwell, she complains about the dirt, the smog, of having to rub shoulders and to be dependent upon the charitable disposition of tradespeople, like the mill owner Mr Thornton.
It is a different class of person who thrives in Milton, entrepreneurial, less concerned with the well being of those who work for them. Margaret and Thornton have long discussions/debates, where they trade blows over the ethics of modern industrialisd society, and whether the care of his workforce is his responsibility or not. The picture Gaskell paints of the life of workers in the mills are forced to lead, is sobering. And when the mill workers go on strike, violent confrontation is on the cards. Strikes are a new very urban phenomenon. They are treated as a moral affront to the rights of mill owners. That workers are getting above themselves in insisting they have a say in the matter of their pay and working conditions.
Interwoven into this telling portrayal of Victorian moral and social attitudes of the time, the Hale Family is in mid crisis. The mother is ill. Her father tries to earn enough money through teaching and Margaret attempts to keep the household running smoothly. She has a brother Federick, living in self imposed exile abroad, because he was involved in a notorious mutiny, for which he could well be hung were he ever to return home.
Margaret, almost despite her hostility towards Mr Thornton, finds he frequently intrigues and occupies her thoughts. But when he declares his love for her, up go her affronted bridges - how dare he? And this resistance to love, where each of them pretends indifference, and plays far too hard not to be got, runs throughout the novel. There are secrets and lies at work, that neither of them is fully aware of. There are also plenty of tragic events, murder, suicides and destitution.
The revolution of a newly urbanised society, had not really been portrayed to quite this level of realism before. Gaskell's attempt to convey local dialect, is not always effective. I couldn't detect quite what accent she was aiming for most of the time. But generally I'd say she portrays working class people with considerably more honesty, than Dickens, who does tend to resort to the loveable caricature, too easily ennobling or sentimentalising them. Yes, there are moments when the drama tips into the stagey melodramatic set piece.
Mr Thornton is certainly this novels 'Mr Rochester', the blunt yet mysteriously unknowable man, you understand early on these two will be living happily together by the end. Margaret is more a spirited example of heroine than you normally find in Victorian novels. And Gaskell does bring her two central characters together at the end as equals. Though women's options, even here, can be are as limited as the wives of destitute mill workers are, without a husband or financial independent means, any agency would still be ring fenced by marriage. Margaret is herself misjudged for having seemingly strayed from the propriety of what is deemed acceptable behaviour for a woman.
North and South is an interesting book, from both a historical and social perspective, in the portrayal of a society in flux. Disruptive changes, where views and expectations of class, gender and lifestyle were shifting, dependent upon where in the country you lived. The North South divide we talk of in Britain to this day, has its origins in this period of the Industrial Revolution.
CARROT REVIEW - 6/8
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