Elizabeth Gaskell

Her heroine, Margaret Hale, is taken from the wealthy south by her nonconformist minister father, to live in a fictional northern town. The stark differences are explored through Margaret's abrupt change in circumstance, and her sympathetic reaction to the plight of the northerners. She comes into conflict with a local mill owner who proposes marriage to her. The two undergo a series of misunderstandings and changes of heart before they are reunited....

(Oxford Bookworms Library is a new edition of the original Oxford Bookworms Black and Green series, merging the two series into one with new covers.)

This Penguin Classic is performed by Gemma Whelan, best known for her roles in Game of Thrones, Gentleman Jack and Upstart Crow. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Patricia Ingham. When her father leaves the Church, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the North of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret...

Mary Barton is beautiful but has been born poor. Her father fights for the rights of his fellow workers, but Mary wants to make a better life for them both. She decides to reject her lover Jem in the hope of marrying rich mill-owner's son Henry Carson. She soon finds herself hopelessly torn between them.