It was just after I finished my master's degree at the University of Edinburgh that I was introduced to North and South , having raided the Rancho Mirage Public Library's impressive collection of BBC adaptations as thoroughly as possible. My flatmate Jess had burned me a copy of the DVD before I left Scotland, but there was something wrong with it, and it wouldn't play. Which was just as well, pirating being illegal and all. Elizabeth Gaskell's masterpiece, North and South , should never be read before Pride and Prejudice . I would like to get the comparison between these two novels out of the way as quickly as possible, because it's probably the first conversation anyone has about North and South . The premise of both is more or less the same - a man and a woman from two different walks of life meet; he finds himself unwillingly attracted to her and addresses a hasty proposal to her immediate and fiery rebuff; circumstances follow which make her regret her decisio...
"There is more love in the world than anything else." - George MacDonald