North and South: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

North and South, credited to Elizabeth Gaskell, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

Librivox recording of North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. Set in Victorian England, North and South is the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman whose life is turned upside down when her family relocates to northern England. As an outsider from the agricultural south, Margaret is initially shocked by the aggressive northerners of the dirty, smoky industrial town of Milton. But as she adapts to her new home, she defies social conventions with her ready sympathy and defense of the working poor. Her passionate advocacy leads her to repeatedly clash with charismatic mill owner John Thornton over his treatment of his workers. While Margaret denies her growing attraction to him, Thornton agonizes over his foolish passion for her, in spite of their heated disagreements. As tensions mount between them, a violent unionization strike explodes in Milton, leaving everyone to deal with the aftermath in the town and in their personal lives. Elizabeth Gaskell serialized North and South between September 1854 and January 1855 in Charles Dickens’s magazine Household Words. Upon its publication, Gaskell established herself as a novelist capable of serious discourse on social responsibility and advocacy for change in defiance of established authority. (Summary by Dani)

Recording facts

• Recording title: North and South
• Author credits: Elizabeth Gaskell
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 52
• Listed recording duration: 18:39:26

Catalogue topics

• social novel
• industrial novel
• romance

Opening tracks: first 24 of 52

1. 01 - Haste to the Wedding — 22:28
2. 02 - Roses and Thorns — 21:56
3. 03 - The More Haste, the Worse Speed — 23:23
4. 04 - Doubts and Difficulties — 26:24
5. 05 - Decision — 32:36
6. 06 - Farewell — 15:05
7. 07 - New Scenes and Faces — 15:01
8. 08 - Homesickness — 27:44
9. 09 - Dressing for Tea — 9:41
10. 10 - Wrought Iron and Gold — 19:49
11. 11 - First Impressions — 21:06
12. 12 - Morning Calls — 14:12
13. 13 - A Soft Breeze in a Sultry Place — 15:19
14. 14 - The Mutiny — 15:51
15. 15 - Masters and Men — 29:36
16. 16 - The Shadow of Death — 21:02
17. 17 - What Is a Strike? — 21:05
18. 18 - Likes And Dislikes — 19:45
19. 19 - Angel Visits — 29:16
20. 20 - Men and Gentlemen — 24:35
21. 21 - The Dark Night — 17:47
22. 22 - A Blow and its Consequences — 32:31
23. 23 - Mistakes — 15:25
24. 24 - Mistakes Cleared Up — 14:01

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.