North and South

Elizabeth's Gaskell's book, North and South, reveals differences of wealth, class, and ways of life between the industrial north of England in comparison to the wealthier southern regions. Gaskell express her social commentary through the perspective of a wealthy young woman, Margaret Hale, the daughter of a minister who has recently left the Church of England. Both Margaret and her father move to a northern industrial town and are shocked, but sympathetic to the differences they find there. As both a love story and a political novel, Gaskell's work presents an interesting portrait of Victorian England.