Recently, I read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell on onlineliterature.com (one of my favorite sites EVER). I enjoyed the book, but caught myself doing some major skimming. Gaskell wrote this for publication in a magazine, which may account for its length. Parts of the story drag on with LOTS of detail. Gaskell wraps up the story pretty quickly, and I found myself wishing she had edited out some of the description to focus more on the characters. Margaret and Mr. Thornton go from hating each other to loving each other too quickly, and more exploration of the relationship's development would have been nice. My reaction is probably related to the contemporary romances I read where the authors never mess around with too much description. Just another example of how smut has warped my brain :)
*This review is also posted to my Goodreads page.
