North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell

  Cóż, drodzy czytelnicy. Jako, że trwam w okropnym stanie przeprowadzki oraz okrutnej choroby, nie jestem w stanie wypocić z siebie krzty kreatywnej myśli. Posiadam na dysku mój dawny wpis o powieści Elizabeth Gaskell w wersji angielskiej, dlatego postanowiłam ją wstawić. Głównie, by trzymać się mojego postanowienia, by "umieszczać nowe wpisy trzy razy w tygodniu", lecz żal mi było trzymać ten tekst, bez wstawiania go gdziekolwiek. Obiecuję, że następny post będzie porządny i uczuciowy!

  Well, as you might know already, I’m great fan of Jane Austen and Bronte sisters. I love ‘Gone with the wind’(by Margaret Mitchell), I think it was my favourite movie when I was a child… I reached for version in writing only not so long ago. But ‘Gone with the wind’ is not going to be my theme today.

   Not so long ago(in June), my obsession came back and I decided to watch every romance miniseries made by  BBC studio. It was quite a challenge, ‘cause there’s A LOT of them, really. I watched ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Emma’ aaaand… ‘North & South’, of course. After watching this series I was quite interested in  a novel. That’s why I bought it(I know, it was quick and risky decision but I don’t regret it at all) and absorbed it in one day. A story about sunny South, smoky North, characters’ ups and downs, life, death, hate, prejudice and of course flaming love.

   The novel by Elizabeth Gaskell tells the story of Margaret Hale, who – together with her family – moves from southern province of England to one of the working-class cities – Milton. Margaret is used to sunny days spent on visiting her neighbours and drinking tea and finds herself lost between hostile people and this big city filled with smoke, where you can’t even see the sun. In Milton, she meets quite popular and handsome(well, that’s big surprise indeed) but rather unpleasant owner of one of the factories – John Thornton. Well, mr. Thornton is unable to resist young Margaret’s charms and falls in love with her but…  he meets with rather cool rejection.

BBC's main characters, portrayed by lovely Daniela Denby-Ashe and always-the-best Richard Armitage. 

   Milton went on strike and there is a clash between ‘masters’ and workers. Margaret finds herself in rather complicated situation, uncertain which side she should take…

   I find the whole strike theme, cotton factories and people’s attitudes to new technology, which they don’t trust, very interesting. Well, I AM interested in twentieth-century England and may I say that this novel is very rich in details and long descriptions… what can put some readers to sleep. Of course if you expect action you will find it in every chapter but some things may seem a little tiring. I don’t know how one can resist this novel’s charms and who won’t find it interesting, because I just absorbed it whole at once, of course.

The 'kiss on the hand' motive is - of course - a must. 

  I recommend this novel to every person interested in similar books and everyone else! Reading won’t hurt you and who knows… maybe you will like ‘North & South’? I most certainly did.

Polish edition. Most unwanted. It's just awful, even a landscape of an english garden would be better. Seriously, Świat Książki?