North and South. Elizabeth Gaskell

"North and South" is a recognized masterpiece of Victorian literature, standing alongside the works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot. It is both a deep psychological drama and a sharp social reportage about an era of great changes. The life of Margaret Gale, a well-mannered girl from the idyllic rural south of England, changes dramatically when her family moves to Milton, a harsh industrial center in the north of the country. Among the factory soot and sharp social conflicts, fate brings her together with John Thornton, an influential factory owner, whose inner convictions seem as strong as the laws of the industrial North. Their first meeting gives rise to only mutual antipathy and prejudice. However, this is a story about how stereotypes are destroyed and how true mercy and love break through the fog of traditional views on society and social contradictions.