The Essential Reads

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 36 "Union Not Always Strength" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:Margaret and her father go to the Higgins residence. Nicholas is sitting by himself by the fireplace. Higgins is unshaven and wearing a hole ridden jacket. Mr. Hale says that each family is going through many sorrows at that time. Higgins agrees and says that they can always find him at home, as he is out of work. Mr Hale says that they owe his daughter money for helping them around the house, which Higgins refuses, saying that if Mr. Hale pays Mary, then he would have to pay Margaret for her help with Bessy. Higgins has apparently not asked for work. Apparently, the Masters are refusing to hire workers who are associated with the Union, forcing them to sign contracts that force them not to give tithes to the union. Higgins feels so strongly for the Union that he refuses to work for anywhere that would force him to sign such a contract. Margaret dares to ask, in her non-confrontational way, if he remembers Boucher saying that the Union is a tyrant. Higgins says that he understands that the Union can be cruel, but that it is needed for the betterment of the whole. Higgins then goes to say that the Strike was over, the moment the Boucher started a riot. Margaret asks if it would not have been better to not have people like Boucher in the Union. Mr. Hale tries to stop her daughter from pressing him further, but Higgins tells him that it is okay, he likes Margaret. Apparently after the Riot, Boucher went into hiding and didn’t show himself for a few days, then he tried to ask for work at one of the factories, but he was refused everywhere he went. Outside, the sound of marching feet can be heard moving towards the house, they are carrying a heavy burden. When they arrive at Higgins’ house, it is revealed to be Boucher, drowned in the river. They have come to Higgins to announce the death to Mrs. Boucher. Higgins says that he cannot go, he didn’t like the man and doesn’t know his wife well enough. Margaret suggests her father go but then decides to go herself. Mrs. Boucher is sitting in a chair, and the house looks very dirty. Margaret asks the woman how she is, and the women replies that she is upset with her husband for having left her alone with the children. He has been gone for four days and has sent no word to her. Margaret goes to the woman and announces Bouchers death without any words. Mrs. Boucher asks if Margaret is certain, going to the extent of claiming that people have been brought round after having drowned. Margaret holds the woman, and slowly the children start to understand too. A sound at the door is heard and Margaret asks one of the children to open it. It is her father and a woman. The woman takes over for Margaret in caring for Mrs. Boucher, and Margaret sets to getting rid of the bystanders. The children are taken away by some of the voyeurs and are properly fed. Then, once alone, they try to tell Mrs. Boucher that her husband didn’t die by accident. She understands. Following this, Mr. Hale and Margaret leave, and go to check on Higgins, he doesn’t let them in, only saying that he wishes to be alone on a day like this.SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 35 "Expiation" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:Mr. Thornton stays longer and longer with Mr. Hale, and wonders why Margaret has not returned, but stays interested in his conversation with her father. It is interesting how Mr. Hale is able to open up to Thornton; he can completely unburden his mind with his friend, and when Mr. Hale struggled to finish a sentence, Thornton is able to complete it for him. This conversation knits them together forever, even though they never speak of it again. In the study, Margaret is finally giving up carrying the weight she has carried all these months. She slowly wakes up with a little quivering lip, and then more slowly the rest of her body follows. She hardly remembers the conversation with the inspector, but know that she lied, and lied to protect her brother. If the Inspector comes before they hear from the Inspector, then she will lie again, but is uncertain of how this would come out. Dixon enters the room after letting out Mr. Thornton, who outside is stopped by the police inspector. The man was helped into the force by Mr. Thornton and seeing him leave the Hale residence, sparked his interest. It is revealed that Mr. Thornton was the magistrate who took down the last words of Leonards. The inspector tells him that a man told him that Miss Hale was seen with the man who pushed Leonards to his death, but Miss Hale denies her presence. This conversation troubles Thornton, and when he hears that there is likely to be an inquest, which would force Margaret to take the stand, he asks the inspector to hold off on interrogating Margaret again just yet, and to meet with him at his factor in an hour. Thornton then goes off to his home and locks himself in his office and tries to think about every detail of the night he saw Margaret and this strange man at the train station. After his self-interrogation, he determines, that he will protect Margaret, and writes a note to the Investigator saying that no inquest will be held, as the doctors said that Leonards had a preexisting medical condition that was exacerbated by his fall, and it was this that caused his death, and the drinking, and not the fall. At the Hale residence, inspector comes again after receiving a note from Thornton to tell Margaret that there will be no inquest. While waiting for the inspector to come, Margaret is forced by her father and Dixon to go to bed, as she is too tired and sick looking, but as she tells her father that he should not delay himself either, she hears a knock on the door, and flies down to open it for the inspector. In the office, the inspector tells Margaret that they is not going to be an inquest and that Mr. Thornton was the magistrate. This makes Margaret panic, and she is very confused as to why Thornton would protect her but is even more concerned about Mr. Thornton knowing her to be a liar. Once the Investigator leaves, Margaret goes to her room. She is thankful that all of this business relating to Frederick is over but tries to go over everything that the Inspector told her. Mr. Thornton had seen her on the platform, and he had been told that she denied her presence there. She has been degraded in his eyes. In the morning, she awakes late, and Dixon comes in to give her a letter from Fredrick which was sent 2 days ago saying he is safely out of England and that Mr Henry Lennox would try and protect him.SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 34 "False and True" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:Margaret is having a very hard time dealing with her mother’s passing. It weighs constantly on her mind and Frederick too, weighs heavy on her. Her father paces up and down the house constantly while waiting for word from Frederick saying he has safely left England. Mr Thornton comes to visit them a few days after the funeral. He rings Mr. Hales hand tenderly, and when he looks to Margaret, he sees a deep suffering on her face and sees that she isn’t actually holding up well. Margaret leaves the two men to talk while she goes on with her needlework. Mr. Thornton is able to keep Mr. hale engaged in conversation, and Margaret is very thankful for this. Dixon then comes into the room looking worried and asking for Margaret. In Margaret’s room, once the door is closed, Dixon tells her that a police inspector has come to see her and has been let into the her father’s study. The inspector hasn’t said anything and only wishes to talk to Margaret. In the study, the inspector greets Margaret, but is shocked by her haughtiness. The inspector tells her that the man Leonards passed away following a fall that he had at the Outward Station a few days before. The man was involved in a scuffle, following which Leonards fell. He tells her that someone claimed to have seen her at the station with that man that pushed Leonards. Margaret refutes this with a few curt words, not giving the inspector any emotion. Apparently a grocers assistant claimed that the woman with the man was miss Hale, but is not fully certain. After Leonards got up from his fall, he murmured something about making a telephone call and then wandered off. He fell down in the road and was then taken to the hospital unconscious; he never regained consciousness enough to be able to give a deposition to a magistrate. The inspector then asks Margaret again if she denies these claims, which she does, and though it sounds mechanical response which Margaret gave, but not knowing her enough, he does not question it further. Margaret, though not moving a muscle, is deeply hurt by her own lie. Gathering up his things, the Inspector says that if anything more comes from his questioning the other witnesses, then she may have to come to court, but again Margaret is unflinching. She leads the man to the door, and takes him out of the house, after shutting the door behind her, and going back into the study, locking this door too, she collapses on the floor. SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 33 "Peace" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:Drinks were prepared for Margaret on her return from the train station, and the house seems strangely quiet to Margaret after all the chaos of Frederick’s departure. Margaret determines that she is not going to tell her father about everything that happened, not wishing to increase his anxiety. Frederick will, hopefully be soon out of England. Margaret tries to engage her father in conversation about Mr. Bell’s arrival, and asks what should happen if he cannot come. He says that he should ask Mr. Thornton, to which Margaret objects, asking to be able to go instead, against the traditions of Southern women. Mr. Bell cannot come… Margaret spends the next day trying to convince her father not to invite Mr. Thornton to her mother’s funeral, to which he finally relents, after receiving a letter from Mrs. Thornton saying that they will send their carriage to the procession, heavily vexing Margaret; are the Hale’s not good enough to be graced with their actual presence. They receive a letter from Frederick in London, saying that Mr. Lennox is not in town, and that and that his clerk told him that he should be back in a few days, causing Frederick to have to stay a few more days in the city. Margaret determines not to tell her father the contents of this note, worrying about it being a suggestion of hers to see the lawyer. Thankfully, in her father’s grief, he forgot that they were supposed to receive a letter from his son. The undertaker comes to take the body of Mrs. Hale.At the Funeral, Mr. Hale is more or less numb, and Margaret must keep her composure for her father’s sake. Dixon points out to Margaret that Nicholas Higgins and his daughter to her. When all is ended, Mr. Hale has Margaret lead him away like a man blind. Dixon, in tears, didn’t realise that the crowd was leaving until she was stopped by Mr. Thornton, who asks after Mr. and Miss Hale. She says that Mr. Hale is terribly beaten down, but that Margaret is holding out pretty well, which causes him to feel very uneasy about Margaret, especially after what he saw at the Outward Station. SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell chapter 32 "Mischances" narrated by Isaac BirchallSubscribe on YT or Join the Book Club on KO-FI and support me as an independent creator :D⁠https://ko-fi.com/theessentialreads⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOFfvo05ElM96CmfsGsu3g/join⁠Summary:All the following day, the family stays together. Frederick, now leaving, steels his emotions for the final time, which causes Margaret to finally feel her emotions. Mr. Hale starts at every sound and only feels comfortable when Frederick is out of site. That evening, Mr. Hale asks Margaret to go to the quieter station with Frederick so that he has a better chance of getting away unseen. When they arrive at the outward station, they have a 20-minute wait before the train arrives. Frederick says that he is going to ask for his exculpation purely for her sake than anyone else’s, unable to imagine what his sister would do if their father were to go too. Margaret is very touched by this and tries to reassure him. They are holding each other in their arms while waiting, and Margaret goes to talk again when she is arrested by the sight of Mr. Thornton riding past on his horse. Frederick asks quietly who the man is, and when Margaret answers, he makes a quick statement about his scowl. Frederick goes to say that he wishes that they hadn’t sent the cab back as it is getting too dark. At the station again, Margaret goes to buy her brother’s ticket. They go to walk together on the platform together. While waiting, Margaret starts to think that it is a bad idea for Fred to go to London. Suddenly, Frederick is accosted by a man in a worker’s uniform, asking him if his name is Hale, and in a quick bustle the man falls onto the platform, causing Margaret to tell her brother to run to the oncoming train. Margaret runs to the ladies’ room after this and tries to calm herself down before going to buy her own ticket home. In the ticket office she hears news about Leonards, and it seems that it was indeed him who confronted her brother…SEO stuff I don't want to do. Elizabeth Gaskell's classic, "North and South" sees Margaret Hale's live uprooted as her family moves to the north of England. Initially disgusted by the ugliness of the industrial town of Milton, Margaret develops a strong sense of social justice after seeing the poverty and suffering of local mill workers.