'How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?'

Elizabeth Gaskell's compassionate, richly dramatic novel features one of the most original and fully-rounded female characters in Victorian fiction, Margaret Hale. It shows how, forced to move from the country to an industrial northern town, she develops a passionate sense of social justice, and a turbulent relationship with mill-owner John Thornton. North and South depicts a young woman discovering herself, in a nuanced portrayal of what divides people, and what brings them together.

This is a stunning new Clothbound Classics edition of Gaskell's famous novel, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. These delectable and collectible Penguin editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) was born in London but grew up in the north of England in the village of Knutsford. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848, winning the attention of Charles Dickens, and most of her later work was published in his journals. She was also a lifelong friend of Charlotte Brontë, whose biography she wrote.