Product Description

A revolutionary social and political commentary, North and South solidified Gaskell's place in the company of Victorian England's finest novelists. This Norton Critical Edition of her best-selling novel is annotated and edited by preeminent Gaskell scholar Alan Shelston.

"Contexts" includes contemporary reviews and correspondence related to North and South, along with the full text of Gaskell's 1850 short story "Lizzie Leigh," which, like North and South, is set in industrial Manchester and deals with strong working women. This topic is further addressed in Bessie Rayner Parkes's essay on Victorian working women.

"Criticism" collects eleven assessments of the novel, among them Louis Cazamian's 1904 study of industrial fiction and Hilary Schor's recent study of North and South in the context of discourse analysis.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41520 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

About the Author
Alan Shelston is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Manchester. He has published extensively on Elizabeth Gaskell and other nineteenth-century authors, and is co-editor of Further Letters of Mrs. Gaskell.

Customer Reviews

So much more!
I love the Norton Critical Edition because it contains so many secondary sources; from letters to contemporary criticism! That is useful to get a better understanding of this novel and its author. The footnotes are on the page and not somewhere in the back of the book, so it's a very easy to use edition. I'd recommed it for college use.

A welcome surprise for a Jane Austen fan!
I was told by my sister that I just HAD to see the BBC miniseries "North and South" based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell. I am here to repeat that advice but also to add that you don't want to stop there! As a big Jane Austen fan, I was surprised and ashamed to find that I had never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell. I really enjoyed her writing--the story behind "North and South" and the characters were excellent. I also learned so much about England during that time that I did not know.

I highly recommend the Norton Critical Edition of "North and South" as well. It provided helpful footnotes throughout the story and interesting letters and analysis following the conclusion of the novel. I also must again recommend the BBC miniseries...it was a fairly true adaptation, and the characters came to life! I really don't think you'll be disappointed either way--book or DVD!

Font too small otherwise excellent
The font for this edition is very, very small. The annothations and extra info are perfect for the serious reader or student (if you have good eyes). I love this book and highly recommend it, especially for Jane Austen fans.