When Margaret Hale is uprooted from the quiet gentility of southern England and thrust into the industrial tumult of Milton, a northern mill town, her world fractures. Confronted with striking workers, choking factories, and a proud, implacable mill owner named John Thornton, Margaret must reckon with her deepest convictions-about justice, class, power, and love.

First published in 1854, North and South is Elizabeth Gaskell's boldest and most ambitious novel: a work of fierce social commentary and subtle emotional power. Gaskell draws the battle lines not only between labor and capital, north and south, but between head and heart. And at the center stands Margaret-a heroine of intelligence, dignity, and defiance.