….or the reason why the dishes have piled up by the sink the last 48 hours!
Jeff so generously bought a dvd of North and South as a celebration for my having finished Economics class on Monday night. We watched the first hour episode that night and the remaining 3+ hours last night. Wow, wow, wow! If you are a BBC movie fan, I highly recommend North and South.
Elizabeth Gaskell, a contemporary of Charles Dickens, wrote several novels based on the societal upheavals of Industrialism in mid-nineteenth century England. Mr. Dickens even praised Mrs. Gaskell of being a better writer than he! While I have not read North and South yet, the movie adaptation was excellently done. Yeah, I’m the kind who reads the book first and then critiques the movie later.
Here is a quick synopsis: Margaret Hale and her family move from a bucolic southern village to the northern edgy industrial town, named appropriately, Millton. They meet up with the leading mill owning family, the Thorntons, who have a tragic past but are resolute to making their operation successful. Margaret befriends some of the mill workers, there is a strike, there is romance, and best of all, a happy ending.
The social commentary is heavier than Jane Austen but not as ponderous or twisted as Dickens. The characters are a little more raw and rough than Austenites. You will need to watch closely to follow some of the plot devices. If you curl up with the BBC Pride and Prejudice on a rainy afternoon…you will soon adore North and South as equally worthy of your sewing or knitting time.
