North And South

Title: North and South
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Genre: Classic, Romance
Spice: 0 / 5
Format: Kindle
Pages: 406
Reason Read: Buddy Read
Rating:

My Thoughts

My impression of NORTH AND SOUTH is that I spent an entire month reading it for what exactly? The most unsatisfying ending I’ve ever read! I know it was improper back then to have a kiss and I had already resigned myself to that fact when I started reading the book. But, I had hoped it would’ve had at least somewhat of a satisfying ending, like Margaret and Mr. Thornton getting married or something. It was definitely not one of my favorite reads. In fact, overall, I didn’t much care for it.

I disliked the absence of dialogue tags because it caused a lot of confusion. Gaskell also didn’t explain some things very well. And, what was the deal with the never-ending paragraphs? There were so many of them, some of them lasting for three or four pages. I also feel like there was a lot of content that would’ve been cut out had the book been written now because it added nothing to the story. And, finally, there were so many deaths. Seriously, no character was safe.

In my opinion, the story had only one redeeming quality–the characters. I loved Mr. Higgins, Margaret, and Mr. Thornton. I enjoyed seeing how they all changed and grew over the course of the novel. I truly wish Margaret and Mr. Thornton had been given a more satisfying ending. Even though I didn’t really care for this book in the end, I’m still glad I read it. I’m also glad I’m done reading it.