Em Lost In Books's Reviews > North and South

“Oh, Mr. Thornton, I am not good enough!'

'Not good enough! Don't mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness.”

It took Margaret and Mr Thornton 451 pages (my edition) to reach here and what a journey it was. Painful at times, and adorable at others.

Margaret came to the industrial town of Milton from Haleston, a village. Her father who is a parson took Mr. Thornton as his student. Soon Margaret and Mr. Thornton find themselves on the opposite side of wall which has poor people on one side and rich on the other. Mr. Thornton realizes early on about his feelings for Margaret but as a proud and arrogant girl, she refused to see the utter devotion with which he loves her. Later on she came to sense but it was too late by then and she was on her way to other town and thousands of pounds richer.

Ms. Gaskell shows us the strife of poor in those days of industrialization when almost everyone was struggling financially in the town of Milton. In my she sided with the poor but also showed us the side where rich were equally struggling to meet ends. She very cleverly has knitted this love story with social issue of that time.

Characters have fault but humans are tend to have them and that's what makes this book so dear to me.

Highly recommended if you can bear the slow pace, and the tug of war between rich and poor.