Sympathetic to the poor (whose courage and tenacity she admires and among whom she makes friends), she clashes with John Thornton: a nouveau riche cotton-mill owner who is contemptuous of his workers. She witnesses the brutal world wreaked by the Industrial Revolution, seeing employers and workers clashing in the first strikes. Forced to leave her home in the tranquil, rural south, Margaret Hale settles with her parents in Milton. The novel is set in the fictional industrial town of Milton in the north of England. Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton (1848), focused on relations between employers and workers in Manchester from the perspective of the working poor North and South uses a protagonist from southern England to present and comment on the perspectives of mill owners and workers in an industrialising city. Initially, Gaskell wanted the novel to be titled after the heroine, Margaret Hale, but Charles Dickens, the editor of Household Words, the magazine in which the novel was serialised, insisted on North and South. The 2004 version renewed interest in the novel and attracted a wider readership. With Wives and Daughters (1865) and Cranford (1853), it is one of her best-known novels and was adapted for television three times (1966, 19). GradeSaver, 19 September 2012 Web.North and South is a social novel published in 1854–55 by English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. Next Section North and South Summary Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Osborne, Kristen. The 1975 version was by the Midlands playwright David Turner, and the 2004 adaptation was by Sandy Welch.

There have been two miniseries produced by the BBC. The first edition in book form was published by Chapman and Hall in 1855. This and other suggestions on reshaping and altering for serialization annoyed Gaskell and damaged the pair's cordial working relationship. It thus calls greater attention to the disparities between the North and the South, which was a common subject in the discourse of the day. The novel was originally to be titled Margaret Hale, but was changed at the suggestion of Dickens.

North and South was published in weekly installments in Household Words, the magazine edited by Charles Dickens, from September 2nd, 1854 to January 27th, 1855. The fictional industrial town of Milton was based on Manchester, where Gaskell lived with her family. It features a strong female protagonist, a mature love story, and relevant social and political commentary regarding industrialization and class antagonisms present in mid-19th century England. Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South is often considered one of, if not the best, of her works, as well as a significant piece of Victorian literature.

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