North and South - The Ending

[kev67]

I have read that Charles Dickens became a bit fed up with how long North and South was taking to end, and told Mrs Gaskell to hurry up. It was being serialised in his magazine, Household Words. When Mrs Gaskell published it as a book, she extended the ending again. I thought Dickens had a point: it does take a while to end. I think that was because everyone wanted John Thornton and Margaret Hale to get together, especially the female readers (I dare say). Nevertheless, Gaskell did not want to just give it to them, because that would have been a predictable ending. I thought the ending was pretty well engineered. Margaret Hale inherits a fortune from her godfather, but this seems a bit more plausible than when Jane Eyre inherits a fortune, because Margaret's godfather is a well fleshed out character in the book. I suspect Jane's implausible inheritance in Jane Eyre was merely to enable her to marry Mr Rochester as an equal. Jane does not have to marry Rochester to escape poverty. In North and South, the inheritance is important to the resolution of the book. Margaret Hale offers to invest in John Thornton's business to help him get over a cash flow problem. This was the same problem that was caused by the strike, Thornton's investment of capital in new machinery, and the poor quality work done by the unskilled Irish workers. Mr Thorton's emotion at being able to save his business, added to the feeling he has for Margaret anyway, is enough for him to overcome his reserve.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Well that was a bit rich coming from Dickens! Hardly noted for his brevity himself.

[mona amon]

But he did own Household Words after all. North and South followed his own highly successful Hard Times in that magazine, and Dickens has said he found it extremely wearisome. He thought it was losing him readers, and kept badgering Gaskell to cut down the quantity she wrote. When she published it in book form she added some scenes that were not in the serialized version, but the curtailed ending seems to have grown on her, as this letter shows -

My dear Mrs. Jameson,—
You can’t think what pleasure your kind note of appreciation gave, and gives me. I made a half-promise (as perhaps I told you) to Mr. Dickens, which he understood as a whole one, and though I had the plot and characters in my head long ago, I have often been in despair about the working of them out, because of course, in this way of publishing it, I had to write pretty hard without waiting for the happy leisure hours. And then 20 numbers was, I found, my allowance, instead of the too scant 22, which I had fancied were included in “ five months,” and at last the story is huddled and’ hurried up, especially in the rapidity with which the sudden death of Mr. Bell succeeds to the sudden death of Mr. Hale, but what could I do? Every page was grudged me, just at last, when I did certainly infringe all the bounds and limits they set me as to quantity. Just at the very last I was compelled to desperate compression. But now I am not sure if, when the barrier gives way between 2 such characters as Mr.Thornton and Margaret, it would not go all smash in a moment, and I don’t feel quite certain that I dislike the end as it now stands.

...[cut]...

I love the way she describes it as "go all smash in a moment".

[kev67]

That quote is interesting. I thought Mr Bell died conveniently quickly, although he was the oldest of the characters in the book, being over sixty. I watched some YouTube reviews on the book. One girl liked the television series much more than the book, but said, about the book, that she was waiting for John and Margaret to get together, and when it happened it was all in the last two or three pages. Personally, I thought that was fine. The wedding, moving back to Milton, babies: that all comes later.

BTW, I was amused by the YouTube reviewers. They liked the love story and weren't all that interested in the sociology and the economics. I think they preferred the television series because it had Richard Armitage playing John Thornton. I did not imagine John Thornton being quite as good looking as that. I imagined him looking more like Rory Kinnear, but perhaps not receding so badly.