Margaret of the North resurrects Gaskell's feminist-leaning themes and casts Margaret as someone growing into that role.
A sequel to Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, it begins where the BBC miniseries on Gaskell's novel ends.
John Thornton and Margaret Hale honeymoon in a vibrant mid-century Paris when impressionism was beginning to take hold and cafés were the place to be. They spend days of ease in Cadiz with her brother and his Spanish wife. These experiences change their outlook.
Back in England, she deals with the problems of modernity and industrialization in a harsh bustling northern city. At the same time, she struggles with the age-old complexities of relating to her new husband and mother-in-law.
Thornton is tender and loving towards but not as sensitive as Margaret to the needs of cotton mill workers'. Can he learn to care more for his factory workers?
Gaskell's novel is set in the context of industrial upheaval. Margaret of the North is a romance. But one set in the context of changing social and sexual roles, as well as artistic revolutions.
