North and South

De: Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrado por: Heather Wilds

As relevant now as when it was first published, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South skillfully weaves a compelling love story into a clash between the pursuit of profit and humanitarian ideals.

When her father leaves the church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill owner and self-made man John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.

In North and South, Gaskell skillfully fused individual feeling with social concern and, in Margaret Hale, created one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

Public Domain (P)2016 Recorded Books

Lovely, long, old fashioned-not just like the BBC series

If you do not like 1800s English lit, then this book will be no different. It is quite long. If you fell in love with the BBC series starring Richard Armitage and want the book to be identical, then you may be disappointed. Some modern liberties were taken with the series, which made it more enjoyable in my opinion. Actually, Richard Armitage as John Thornton made it fabulous. That being said I enjoyed this book, and I do like the characters very much. Heather Wilds as a narrator is always perfection. Even the phone book would get a 3 star review from me if she were reading it. If you like Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Pride & Prejudice then this book is for you. If you don't, watch the BBC series and fall in love with John Thornton that way.

The reader was excellent

Expression, both of characters and emotion was such as to bring the book alive.

Narrator is terrible

I really wanted to complete the book so I toughed it out, but I will avoid any more readings by this narrator…absolutely painful to listen to.