North & South is the second industrial novel from Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1855. Set during the 1850s, this fiction tells the story of nineteen years old Margaret Hale, who travels with her parents from her native South to the dark North of England, where they settle and witness the life that has been brought by the industrial revolution. Margaret soon befriends a family of workers, The Higginses, and meets a charismatic mill owner, John Thornton, who is being tutored by her father. Gaskell 's first literary work, Mary Barton, also an industrial novel, enlightened her readership on the manufacturing living conditions. In the preface of this book, the author explains us that instead of telling a story set in the countryside in the past, she thought about 'how deep might be the romance in the lives of some of those who elbwoed [her] daily in the busy streets of the town in which [she] resides '. Indeed Gaskell was living in Manchester at the time, a focal point of the industry during the Victorian Era. As described on the Gaskell Society website, the author was 'an active humanitarian ', and observed the works and lives of the Mancunians. When writing North & South, she probably again wanted to raise public awareness of the social conditions during the period of industrial revolution and race to progress. Through a love story and the lives of ordinary people, Gaskell offers a non-judgemental social statement of the everyday Victorian and industrial life, with