North and South #2

Part 2, carrying on from part 1, you can see this {Here}

A few of my favourite passages

'There was no particular need to tell them, that what he did not care to do for Reverend Hale, unknown in Milton, he was only too glad to do at the one short sharp remonstrance of Mr Thornton, the wealthy manufacturer.'

'... they, who havent the sense to see that, if we dont get a fair share of the profits to compensate us for our wear and tear here in England, we can move off to some other country; and that, what with home and foreign competition, we are none of us likely to make above fair share, and may be thankful enough if we get that, in an average number of years.'

'She was not sorry when, at ten o'clock, the servants filed in to prayers.  These her mother always read,  - first reading a chapter.  They were now working steadily through the Old Testament.  Whne prayers were ended, and his mother had wished him good night, with that steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had the intensity of a blessing, Mr Thornton continued his walk.'

'But how could I help it?' asked she of herself.  'I never liked him, I was civil; but I took no trouble to conceal my indifference.  Indeed, I never thought about myself or him, so my manners must have shown the truth.  All that yesterday, he might mistake.  But that is his fault, not mine.  I would do it again, if need were, though it does lead me into all this shame and trouble.'

He said to himself, that he hated Margaret, but a wild, sharp sensation of lovecleft his dull, thunderous feeling like lightning, even as he shaped the words expressive of hatred.

But she had no thought of penitbefore God; nothing but chaos and night surrounded the one lurid fact that, in Mr Thornton's eyes, she was degraded.

Hale! did it never strike you that Thornton and your daughter have what the French call a tendresse for each other?

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All in all, I like the process of reading this classic, but not the content.  I found it overly long in the beginning, the language/accent of the Darkshire people very hard to read and had to read it a few times to get it.  Not such easy reading.  I am glad I read it, but I wont bother again.

Sorry I have been MIA.  Life has got in the way, 2016 has thrown us many challenges, we have lost too many family and friends.  Another funeral, longer working hours than expected (imagine 3 rooms 20 feet x 20 feet, filled with boxes floor to ceiling full of paper work and receipts.  Although I have found some amazing house keeping books from 1896, where the house keeper was extremely keen on the use of ledgers.  I have to sort through all of them.  Every box contains anything from something from the last 6-7 years, or even something from 50 years ago.  Every thing needs to be checked, stored/archived or sorted for the last 10 years.  Its all a jumble.  I havent even started to look at the quotes for the building works.).

There we have it.  

How are you doing with A Christmas Carol?  I have finished, I will be putting together the post and it will be scheduled for the 21st December.  I am really looking forward to Lolita the next book.

Hope you are all well.

Sol xxx