North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell- A Visual Tour

I am posting this for the Classics Challenge hosted at November's Autumn. I recently read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. In North and South, Gaskell contrasts between the rural Southern England and Industrial Northern England. Margret Hale along with her family moves to Milton-Northern, a fictional town representing Industrial Manchester as her father turns 'dissenter'.

The line below kind of expresses the sentiment of the book.

And yet, yo see, North and South has both met and made kind o' friends in this big smoky place. 

William Cowen's View of Bradford contrast the rural and industrial in the same picture. This picture is used as a cover for this book. But this togetherness is more symbolic then literal.  

Industrial strike and its problems are expressed below. 

'She knew how it was; they were like Boucher, with starving children at home—relying on ultimate success in their efforts to get higher wages, and enraged beyond measure at discovering that Irishmen were to be brought in to rob their little ones of bread.'

On Strike, 1891by

1. Sir Hubert von Herkomer

atRoyal Academy of Arts

'Many in the crowd were mere boys'

Child workers in a Manchester cotton factory in 1820.

Image: Manchester Archives & Local Studies

Cotton factories in Union Street, Manchester, 1835. Some of these buildings still stand today.

Image: Science Museum / SSPL

Margret befriends Bessy Higgins, who is dying of a lung disease.  "I began to work in a carding-room soon after, and the fluff got into my lungs and poisoned me.'

Mill girls working with spinning frames in a Manchester cotton mill, 1851. Women made up a large proportion of the expanding factory labour force.

Image: Manchester Archives & Local Studies

It's not like there are problems only in the North. 


'God help 'em! North an' South have each getten their own troubles.'

In between the strikes and poverty, there is a beautiful love story paralleling the Pride and Prejudice that surpasses class and status differences. Gaskell paints a picture of smoky North. Gaskell lived in Knutsford, near Manchester, which is a beautiful place at least at present. Below are some images of Knutsford in connection with Gaskell.

 

It looks like Gaskell was a dissenter like Margret Hale's Father.

 Gaskell Tower in Knutsford 

Gaskell Tower in Knutsford Showing her book titles
 

Knutsford Images Copyright Srivalli

Friday Memes

This week I am posting from Zone Defence by Petros Markaris translated from Greek by David Connolly

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly meme where we share the opening line of our current read. Book Beginnings is hosted by the Rose City Reader.

It began with a slight rumbling, like someone running on the floor above.

Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of our current book.

His slender body shook like fruit jelly, his steel-rimmed glasses were about to fall off his nose, but he was unable to put a stop to his laughter.

Theme Thursday

Theme Thursday is a fun weekly Meme hosted at Reading Between the Pages.

This weeks theme is Flower

I am posting from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Lydgate was almost forgetting that he must carry on the conversation, in thinking how lovely this creature was, her garment seeming to be made out of the faintest blue sky, herself so immaculately blond, as if the petals of some gigantic flower had just opened and disclosed her; and yet with this infantine blondness showing so much ready, self-possessed grace.

Wicked Title Trouble Challenge

Melissa @ Melissa's Eclectic BookShelf is hosting a Wicked Title Trouble Challenge. Using at least 3 of the titles of the books below...make up the most interesting, creative, funny, romantic, mysterious, or simply ridiculous sentence! Here are the titles
Catching Fire
Solstice
The Sandcastle Girls
Heat Wave
The Beach House
Born Wicked
Rising Sun
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation
That Summer


Here is my take

Born Wicked the Sandcastle Girls
Knew How to Ruin a Summer Vacation
they Created the Heat Wave
And The Beach House Catching Fire
That Summer Solstice
Burnt like Rising Sun

Wicked Wildfire Readathon

I had lots of fun and done some solid reading participating in Pick Your Thon last week. Now I am participating in Wicked Wildfire Readathon. I am planning to read Middlemarch by George Eliot which is 1018 ipad ebook pages, roughly 200 pages per day. So it goes.

Update : I have switched to Kindle to read Middlemarch as at is only 881 pages. Same content but less pages so works psychologically.

Update

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell-total pages 571 started at 221 and finished- 350p
Zone Defence by Petros Markaris- total pages 333 started at page 78 finished -255p
Middlemarch currently at 34% 304/881

Total pages: 909

Challenges Participated
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Book Lover
Wicked Title Trouble
Mix n Match

Pick Your Thon Wrap Up

I finished reading two books and started two other. But got around reviewing one book only. Wish I had reviewed more books. It was fun participating in the mini-challenges. I look forward to participating in other events and do better.

Books Read
Venetia by Georgette Heyer- 303/303
The Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace- Ebook-250/250 ipad Pages
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell-220/571.
Zone Defence by Petros Markaris- 77/333

Total pages read- 850 pages

Review
The Book of the Crime by Elizabeth Daly

Thanks to The Book Monsters for hosting this.

Friday Memes

This week I am posting from Venetia by Georgette Heyer

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly meme where we share the opening line of our current read. Book Beginnings is hosted by the Rose City Reader.

"A fox got in amongst the hens last night, and ravished our best layer," remarked Miss Lanyon.

Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of our current book.


"Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do," she said diffidently. "I haven't, and it's important, I think- more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked."