North and South (1854–1855) is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. Margaret Hale, a clergyman's daughter from the gentle south of England, moves to the industrial northern town of Milton and clashes, then falls in love, with the mill owner John Thornton.
The story
When her father leaves the Church of England over a matter of conscience, Margaret moves with her family to Milton, a cotton town. She befriends the worker Nicholas Higgins and his dying daughter Bessy.
During a strike, she shields Thornton from an angry crowd, and he proposes; she proudly refuses. Over time, misunderstandings fade, and the two are reconciled when Margaret, now an heiress, invests in his failing mill.
Masters and men
Gaskell, who lived in Manchester, shows both the hardships of the workers and the pressures on the mill owners, and imagines dialogue between them.
Milton is modelled on Manchester, where her husband William Gaskell was a Unitarian minister for over fifty years.
Publication
The novel was serialised in Dickens's magazine Household Words in 1854–1855, following Hard Times. Dickens pressed Gaskell to keep to the tight weekly length, which she found difficult.
For the book edition, she restored and expanded the ending. The BBC adaptation of 2004, with Richard Armitage, renewed its popularity.
Anecdotes
A title from Dickens
Gaskell wanted to call the novel Margaret Hale; it was Dickens who suggested North and South.
A crashed website
After the BBC series aired in 2004, so many viewers wrote to the BBC's message board that it reportedly crashed.
Frequently asked questions
Who is John Thornton?
A mill owner in Milton, with whom Margaret falls in love.
What town is Milton based on?
Manchester.
Who suggested the title?
Charles Dickens; Gaskell had wanted to call it Margaret Hale.