Novel Approaches: ‘North and South’ by Elizabeth Gaskell
· 26 min · S15 E6
Episode Novel Approaches: ‘North and South’ by Elizabeth Gaskell
In North and South (1855), Margaret Hale is uprooted from her sleepy New Forest town and must adapt to life in the industrial north. Through her relationships with mill workers and a slow-burn romance with the self-made capitalist John Thornton, she is forced to reassess her assumptions about justice and propriety. At the heart of the novel are a series of righteous rebels: striking workers, mutinous naval officers and religious dissenters.
Dinah Birch joins Clare Bucknell to discuss Gaskell’s rich study of obedience and authority. They explore the Unitarian undercurrent in her work, her eye for domestic and industrial detail, and how her subtle handling of perspective serves her great theme: mutual understanding.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrna
In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsna
Read more in the LRB:
Dinah Birch: The Unwritten Fiction of Dead Brothers
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v19/n19/dinah-birch/the-unwritten-fiction-of-dead-brothers
Rosemarie Bodenheimer: Secret-keeping
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n16/rosemarie-bodenheimer/secret-keeping
John Bayley: Mrs G
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n05/john-bayley/mrs-g
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Links in the notes 6
- https://lrb.me/applecrna
- https://lrb.me/closereadingsna
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v19/n19/dinah-birch/the-unwritten-fiction-of-dead-brothers
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n16/rosemarie-bodenheimer/secret-keeping
- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n05/john-bayley/mrs-g
- https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.