“North and South” by Mrs. Gaskell

“Nearer to the town, the air had a faint taste and smell of smoke; perhaps, after all, more a loss of the fragrance of grass and herbage than any positive taste or smell. Quick they were whirled over long, straight, hopeless streets of regularly-built houses, all small and of brick. Here and there a great oblong many-windowed factory stood up, like a hen among her chickens, puffing out black ‘unparliamentary’ smoke, and sufficiently accounting for the cloud which Margaret had taken to foretell rain. As they drove through the larger and wider streets, from the station to the hotel, they had to stop constantly; great loaded lurries blocked up the not over-wide thoroughfares. Margaret had now and then been into the city in her drives with her aunt. But there the heavy lumbering vehicles seemed various in their purposes and intent; here every van, every waggon and truck, bore cotton, either in the raw shape in bags, or the woven shape in bales of calico. People thronged the footpaths, most of them well-dressed as regarded the material, but with a slovenly looseness which struck Margaret as different from the shabby, threadbare smartness of a similar class in London.” (North and South, p. 72-73)

Illustration from original edition
(source)

For a long time, I have been meaning to read the work of Mrs. Gaskell, the 19th century author of social novels, who is also well-known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Finally this weekend, I read North and South, which was published in 1854. The “North” and “South” of the title represent the two areas of England — an idyllic south of traditional rural villages and the industrial north in a town called Milton, which is described in the paragraph I quoted above.

The first thing that surprised me was the central social problem of the novel — the conflicting rights of the owners of factories with the workers, particularly the workers’ right to ask for fair wages and even to strike. This problem is unsolved in our own society, and many of the issues that are explored in the novel are just as painful now as they were that long ago. Poverty and hunger of the workers, social snobbery by the more educated classes, and the sense of entitlement of the owners, I’m afraid, remain just as much in our society as they were then, though some of the terms may differ.

Mrs. Gaskell framed these issues by creating a number of well-developed characters representing both sides of the worker-owner conflict. The most important of these characters were: Margaret Hale, a very thoughtful young woman who is poor but “genteel;” Mr. Thornton, a factory owner who has risen from the shopkeeper class; Nicholas Higgins, a worker in the factory who is struggling with the idea of workers’ rights, and Higgins’ daughter Bessie, who has a fatal lung disease because she inhaled “fluff” while working in the textile mill. 

The families and associates of each of these characters are individualized and interesting. They also contribute to the social thought and exploration of class issues embodied in the novel. Margaret, for example, must adjust to the “impertinent” stares and remarks of workmen in Milton’s streets to which her family moves at the start of the novel. In contrast, the residents of her Southern town would have been more respectful to her. Another class, domestic servants, present in almost all homes above the poorest of the time, were becoming hard to find by the 1850s, as many studies of this era point out. In Mrs. Gaskell's South, servants were still willing to give up a lot of freedom. In Milton, however, well-paid factory work was undermining this willingness:

“Margaret ... went up and down to butchers and grocers, seeking for a nonpareil of a girl; and lowering her hopes and expectations every week, as she found the difficulty of meeting with any one in a manufacturing town who did not prefer the better wages and greater independence of working in a mill.” (p. 87)

As always, I’m fascinated when food is used to illuminate the life of characters in a novel, and in no way was I disappointed here. Mrs. Gaskell's writings could serve as a source for many of the studies of Victorian middle class meal times that I've read about. I suspect that they actually were such a source. 

Victorian attitudes towards dinner parties and their timing were one of a number of ways that food customs reflected various social class markers. For example, Margaret’s father was a clergyman with a “living” in a small village in the South, where the dinner hour was quite different from that in the home of her Aunt in London. Books about Victorian meals noted these shifting meal times that were developing throughout that time, as well as the growing consciousness of setting an opulently furnished table, and being an accomplished host or hostess. With respect to other classes: the novel also revealed the fears of the workers because food prices were rising more quickly than their stagnant or even decreasing wages, and they feared that their children would starve if they did not risk confronting their employers.

Descriptions of specific foods that were served in the city and in Milton were particularly enjoyable. A few examples:

“We are dining early to-day, and having nothing but cold meat, in order that the servants may get on with their ironing; and yet, of course, we must ask him to dinner... The clouds on her mother’s brow had cleared off under the propitious influence of a brace of carp, most opportunely presented by a neighbour. ... Mrs. Hale was hurried. It seemed as if desserts were impromptu and unusual things at the parsonage; whereas, if Mr. Hale would only have looked behind him, he would have seen biscuits and marmalade, and what not, all arranged in formal order on the sideboard.” (p. 27-31) 

“Behind the door was another table, decked out for tea, with a white table-cloth, on which flourished the cocoa-nut cakes, and a basket piled with oranges and ruddy American apples, heaped on leaves.” (p. 99)  

“Be sure you notice the dinner well. I shall like to hear how they manage these things in Milton. Particularly the second course, dear. Look what they have instead of game.” (p. 204)

“In general, he was particular and dainty enough, and knew well each shade of flavour in his food, but now the devilled chicken tasted like sawdust.” (p. 451) 

I'm glad I finally managed to read this book, which is not difficult despite its length (563 pages in the edition I read). I did once read Cranford, another novel by Mrs. Gaskell, which was particularly recommended by one of my high school teachers long ago.

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