NORTH AND SOUTH

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Patsy Stoneman, University of Hull Setin the mid-19th century, and written from the author's first-handexperience, North and South follows the story of the heroine's movementfrom the tranquil but moribund ways of southern England to the vital butturbulent north. Elizabeth Gaskell's skilful narrative uses an unusuallove story to show how personal and public lives were woven together in anewly industrial society. This is a tale of hard-won triumphs - ofrational thought over prejudice and of humane care over blind deference tothe market. Readers in the twenty-first century will find themselvesabsorbed as this Victorian novel traces the origins of problems andpossibilities which are still challenging a hundred and fifty years later:the complex relationships, public and private, between men and women ofdifferent classes.