Goodreads Ireland discussion

It's a good serialisation isn't it and Gaskell's style is easy reading so I hope that you enjoy the book as much.

Is that the Richard Armitage one? That was pretty faithful to the text. The book is brilliant though.

I agree, while I enjoyed Cranford, North and South is just amazing.

I read this book very recently and really enjoyed it. I also bought the 2004 mini series and thought it was great and fairly true to the story which was good.

I have also read Cranford and Cousin Phillis. I liked Cousin Phillis better than Cranford. But once I got into Cranford and got used the style of it as in it was a whole lot of separate incidents I quite enjoyed it.

North and South was my favorite though.

Just finished this and really enjoyed it. For some reason it reminded me of gone with the wind. There will be more of a review when I put my thoughts together on it

Ok so I finished this last week and really enjoyed it. The focus on divides between the classes was very well shown especially around the industrial relations.
One of the first things that struck me about this is how the women were portrayed as the strong characters. Margaret had to be the backbone of her family because I felt her father was quite weak at times. IE getting margaret to tell her mother he had left the church, hiding out of the house while she did it!! Even the young sick girl was the strongest member of her family preventing her father from indulging in drink and spending the families money.
It was definitely a different take on Victorian lit I felt because normally the women are these morally perfect women who need to find a husband of good standing. This was a breath of fresh air because Margaret didn't care if she wed or not.
Even her love interest is rescued by Margaret in the end.
I would def try another Gaskell in the future

Really glad you enjoyed it. I love the strong female characters in N&S. John's mother is fantastic although his sister is annoying as hell. I loved all the trade union stuff because it was shown from the point of view of both the factory owners and the workers. Margaret is great, she would risk her reputation rather than betray her family

Ya the sister was really prissy. Her name suited her lol ;)

Ha ha yeah :-)

N&S reminded me more of Pride and Prejudice than Gone with the wind. The female characters in both were very strong and fought for what they believed in. They were almost like feminists I thought.

I really liked the way as well that the female characters of N&S seemed to be the back bone of the families.

I agree with you that Margaret wanted to marry for love and companionship. She didn't want to marry just because it was the thing that women had to do in those days. I really loved the ending and the way the character of Margaret was able to change the way she saw things. She was willing to admit she was initially wrong.

It was really a great book. I've also read the Cranford. Cranford was good after once I realised it was a collection of stories in sequence about a town changing. Cousin Phillis was also very good.

I'll have to get back to Gaskell soon. I loved N&S and Cranford and while I wasn't wild about Mary Barton I definitely want to read more of her work.

I'll have to visit Chapters at some point and pick up copies of some of her books.

Like I need one :-)

This book shop Chapters sounds pretty good. If I ever get to Ireland that shop will be on my to do list.

Trelawn won't let me go to Chapters at the moment . Its not fun

I'd better keep this a secret from my husband.