The film without the cuts. And the book itself.
Margaret plays her part in her cousin's London wedding and refuses a suitor of her own — already certain that none of this is really hers.

Margaret Hale
A proud young woman stands between green Helstone memory and Milton smoke, learning that sympathy must become knowledge.

Helstone
The village Margaret loves most is the one she can never quite return to.
As Edith drifts toward marriage, Margaret feels the ache of losing her closest companion.
Read →Edith Falls Asleep
“HASTE TO THE WEDDING.”
“Wooed and married and a’.”
“Edith!” said Margaret, gently, “Edith!”
But as Margaret half suspected, Edith had fallen asleep. She lay curled up on the sofa in the back drawing-room in Harley Street looking very lovely in her white muslin and blue ribbons. If Titania had ever been dressed in white muslin and blue ribbons, and had fallen asleep on a crimson damask sofa in a back drawing-room, Edith might have been taken for her. Margaret was struck afresh by her cousin’s beauty. They had grown up together from childhood, and all along Edith had been remarked upon by every one, except Margaret, for her prettiness; but Margaret had never thought about it until the last few days, when the prospect of soon losing her companion seemed to give force to every sweet quality and charm which Edith possessed. They had been talking about wedding dresses and wedding ceremonies; and Captain Lennox, and what he had told Edith about her future life at Corfu, where his regiment was stationed; and the difficulty of keeping a piano in good tune (a difficulty which Edith seemed to consider as one of the most formidable that could befall her in her married life), and what gowns she should want in the visits to Scotland, which would immediately succeed her marriage; but the whispered tone had latterly become more drowsy; and Margaret, after a pause of a few minutes, found, as she fancied, that in spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.
A novel that will hurl its heroine into strikes, factory smoke and hard argument begins with a girl too comfortable to stay awake. Edith drifts off mid conversation about wedding dresses, and Gaskell lets us hear exactly what has lulled her: gowns for Scotland, and the terrible prospect of keeping a piano in tune at Corfu, which Edith rates among the worst dangers marriage could hold. Margaret sits watching, cast from the start as the one who observes rather than the one everyone admires. Her sudden alertness to Edith's beauty is really grief in disguise, sharpened by knowing she is about to lose the companion of her whole childhood.

A Borrowed Life
Margaret plays her part in her cousin's London wedding and refuses a suitor of her own — already certain that none of this is really hers.

Flowers from Helstone
A handful of country flowers is all the comfort Margaret can bring to a dying girl.

John Thornton
A self-made mill owner holds himself like iron until love, failure, and labor force him to look closer.
North and South
The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.
The North and South World, as it plays on your phone
- Meet the people. 21 characters, each with a portrait, who they are and what they want.
- Walk the places. 12 places, each pictured, and what happens there.
- Follow the plot. The turns of the story, in order, so you always know where you are.
- Taste the original. 50 key passages in Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell’s own words, each with a short reading of what it is doing.
- The complete book. Every word, in a reader made for your phone. From any passage, one tap opens the book at that very page.
Step inside North and South
Free, in your inbox in about a minute: the World and the complete book, on your phone.


