So I juuuuust now finished the last chapter of North & South. It was really good, well worth the read, and includes several passages where I could swear to god Gaskell is just straight up describing Richard Armitage. Also moments from Thornton’s pov where he goes from painfully pining for Margaret to like two minutes later telling her he’s totally completely over her… And then back to silently pining, lmao.
I do have to say in many places it felt like sort of a first draft, especially as compared to the miniseries. Like the pacing wasn’t quite as polished as I might have expected, and a lot of telling about something important that had happened instead of showing us the event in a scene of its own. That was the biggest frustration for me, how much we get of Margaret hearing about important events after the fact instead of getting those actual scenes in the book. They chose to actually show a lot more of those in the tv production, sometimes inserting Margaret into the scene but also sometimes just allowing there to be things happening that she doesn’t necessarily know about, since the event itself is what’s important to the plot, more than Margaret’s hearing about it. Maybe that can partly be attributed to the way it was originally published as a serial instead of a whole novel & partly because of the style of the time, though I’ve read other works from about the same time period that don’t rely on second hand accounts nearly as much and instead just give us the scene as it happens…
But oh, the end scene. No, it’s not that A+ kiss in a train station with Thornton’s cravat all undone. But otherwise it’s essentially the same scene, only better. (I know, I didn’t think it could get better – but then!!!) There’s a bit more conversation than in the miniseries, and Thornton gently saying Margaret’s name over & over while she hides her face against his shoulder and they just stand there & hold each other for a while and it’s so good. Then a bit more talking – flirting, I should say, outright flirting! – and then there’s this mention of several minutes of “delicious silence” which I’m PRETTY SURE can only mean they made out (they are alone in a back room, after all).
So yeah, if you haven’t read it before, be prepared for a lot of differences from the miniseries, especially towards the beginning, but overall I highly recommend the book of North & South ❤
(Oh and if you like audio books like I do, I listened to it for free here on librivox.org. There are a few different versions, but this was the one I found had the most consistent quality, though ymmv)
