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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A workers' strike escalates into a riot — Margaret is caught in it and briefly endangered
Language
None
Victorian prose; clean language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
The psychological tension of class prejudice and the cost of pride; Margaret's grief over her family's decline; the difficulty of changing one's mind about a person
What this book is about
Margaret Hale moves with her family from idyllic rural Hampshire to the industrial northern city of Milton when her father leaves the church. There she encounters John Thornton, a self-made cotton mill owner — and finds herself caught between two worlds, two sets of values, and a man she can't stop arguing with and can't forget. Gaskell's great Victorian novel is about class, commerce, and the slow education of two proud people.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A workers' riot in which the heroine is endangered
Industrial England and its labor conflicts depicted with moral seriousness
Reader Verification
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