North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Based on my experience of reading Mary Barton for class, I absolutely hate Gaskell, but I was forced to read this novel for the MA programme I just started (!!). I had some hopes for this novel, because I've seen the BBC adaptation and loved it, but it turned out that the adaptation was vastly better than the novel. I hate Gaskell's ponderous style, her high moral tone, her unbearable characters, her melodramatic style. The adaptation greatly altered and improved the novel, inserting a visit to the Great Exhibition, making the characters much more likeable, and everything more striking and interesting. The romantic conflicts of the novel hinge on a set of trifling misunderstandings that the romantic leads agonise over for months, when they literally could have resolved them in two seconds of direct conversation. Margaret is one of the most annoying main characters ever; she is overly scrupulous, dreadfully dull and good, and incredibly condescending, yet everyone else worships her as a goddess. I was exceptionally amused by the fact that Gaskell starts out by describing Margaret as not very beautiful, but as the novel progresses, makes her more and more good-looking, until by the end, everyone is being dazzled with her divine beauty. The BBC adaptation also makes the working classes Higgins family really interesting and strong, while in the novel they are weak and stupid, and seem designed to feed into negative stereotypes of the working class at the time. In general, I was so annoyed and disappointed by this novel, it did nothing but confirm my bad opinion of Gaskell. I really don't understand why she's considered such a good writer and is forced into so many literature courses.