Edith by Dorothy Collin with an introduction by Martin Dodsworth
Although only lately rated among Elizabeth Gaskell's best work, North and South is a novel that is remarkable, and triumphantly succesful, on many levels.
As the title suggests, it is primarily a study of the contrast between the values of rural southern England and the industrialized north; but through the medium of its central characters, John Thornton and Margaret Hale, it also becomes a profound comment on the need for reconciliation among the English classes, on the importance of suffering, and above all on the value of placing the dictates of personal conscience above social respectability. And in Margaret Hale, whose intensity, spiritual isolation and passion electrify the book, Mrs. Gaskell created one of the finest heroines of Victorian literature.
