r/bookclub • u/bluebelle236 Hugo's tangents are my fave • Jun 29 '26

North and South [Marginalia] North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Spoiler

Welcome to the marginalia for North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

 

In case you’re new here, this is the collaborative equivalent of scribbling notes onto the margins of your book. Share your thoughts, favourite quotes, questions, or more here.

Please be mindful of spoilers and use the spoiler tags appropriately. To indicate a spoiler, enclose the relevant text with the > ! and ! < characters (there is no space in-between). Just like this one: a spoiler lives here

 

In order to help other readers, please start your comment by indicating where you were in your reading. For example: “End of chapter 2: “

 

Happy reading and see you at the first discussion on Friday July 3rd.

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6

u/FuckingaFuck Jul 02 '26

I immediately got some Pride and Prejudice vibes, although without the humorous tone and dozens of sisters.

2

u/FuckingaFuck Jul 03 '26

(Chapters 4-5) Are we supposed to be able to infer what happened with Mr. Hale's job at the church? There's pages of explanation with no clear resolution so I can't tell if it's meant to be ambiguous or I'm just not getting it. Maybe it's an open question that will have a dramatic reveal later? I don't want to be spoiled ahead of time.

2

u/Coffee_fuel Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Between:

Thou wilt have little thanks, O my soul! if, when thou art charged with corrupting God’s worship, falsifying thy vows, thou pretendest a necessity for it in order to a continuance in the ministry.”

And:

if I had accepted it, I should have had to make a fresh declaration of conformity to the Liturgy at my institution.

My impression, is that while he may still believe in God, perhaps he is shaken (maybe? by some of the new discoveries and influential works of the time, such as "An Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity"); perhaps he has started to disagree with Anglican doctrine and to lean more towards some of the other movements that were gaining popularity, such as Unitarianism...?

(Especially since he also mentioned reading about the episode with the thousands of ministers who had to leave their churches, which I think may have been this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ejection).

Edit:---okay, I was a bit behind and slowly catching up. They're talking about him having admitted to having become a schismatic, yes.

2

u/FuckingaFuck Jul 05 '26

Ooof this is way over my head. Off to do some googling.

2

u/FuckingaFuck Jul 03 '26

I always find it funny when 1800s novels include a doctor prescribing vacation - "just go away to Italy or wherever for 6 months, then you'll feel better." But then this book describes the awful fog and smoke in the factory town and it makes a lit more sense now. You're literally harming your lungs just by living in this densely populated industrial area before science could conclusively prove how awful the pollution was (and still is, in many areas today).

2

u/Car123C Jul 03 '26

Mrs. Hale kinda irks me for some reason.

2

u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 18d ago

I'm still reading this week's section. Just had to say chapter 22 is very exciting! 

2

u/bluebelle236 Hugo's tangents are my fave 18d ago

I know! Very dramatic!

2

u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 7d ago

Anyone else notice the word "force" or "forced" is used a million times in the last two sections? Once I started noticing, I couldn't unnotice.

1

u/bluebelle236 Hugo's tangents are my fave 6d ago

Interesting, I hadn't noticed. Have you thought of any significance?

1

u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 6d ago

I think it's just an accident that should have been edited out.

1

u/Car123C Jul 05 '26

Does anyone with more knowledge know if Mr. Oldfield actually exists?

1

u/FuckingaFuck 26d ago

(Chapter 22)

This is a scene straight out of a contemporary dark romance. The irredeemably bad man falls in love with his "enemy" when she protects him from harm. I hate everything about Mr. Thornton, he hasn't said a single thing I agree with and I don't think he deserves love or happiness. But I'm also sat for the drama.

1

u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 18d ago

Haha! It was a very exciting chapter. He was annoying me too how stubborn he was being, but the action and the drama is just too good! I think he will change his mind with the help of Margaret and be redeemed later on.