North and South
By: Elizabeth Gaskell ; edited by Angus Easson ; with an introduction by Sally Shuttleworth.
Contributors: Easson, Angus.
Edition: New ed.
Series: Oxford world's classics; Oxford world's classics (Oxford University Press)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 452
Subjects: Young women -- Fiction.; Mothers and daughters -- Fiction.; Children of clergy -- Fiction.; Social classes -- Fiction.; England, Northern -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Description: North and South tells the story of Margaret Hale, a southerner newly settled in the northern industrial town of Milton, whose ready sympathy with the discontented millworkers sits uneasily with her growing attraction to the charismatic mill owner, John Thornton. The novel poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience, ranging from religious crises of conscience to the ethics of naval mutiny and industrial action.

Margaret's internal conflicts mirror the turbulence that she sees all around her. This revised and expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate and explores Gaskell's subtle representations of sexual passion and communal strife.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [xxxvi]-xxxviii).