Set in the mid-19th century, and written from the author`s first-hand experience, North and South follows the story of the heroine`s movement from the tranquil but moribund ways of southern England to the vital but turbulent north. Elizabeth Gaskell`s skilful narrative uses an unusual love story to show how personal and public lives were woven together in a newly industrial society. This is a tale of hard-won triumphs - of rational thought over prejudice and of humane care over blind deference to the market. Readers in the twenty-first century will find themselves absorbed as this Victorian novel traces the origins of problems and possibilities which are still challenging a hundred and fifty years later: the complex relationships, public and private, between men and women of different classes.