8/14/2019 Historical Value of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (Nov. 1997; Scanned)

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The

Historical

Value

of

ElizabethGaskell's

N.qrth

and

South

Patrick

McEvoy-Halston

97t2576

History

25

Prof.Grant

Nov.2811997

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8/14/2019 Historical Value of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (Nov. 1997; Scanned)

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What use s a work of fiction

like North and

Southas a

historical source

gf

lhe social mpact

of the

IndustrialRwolution on England?

t is

a wort

of the time, so

perhaps

historiancould

/'

V

seehenovel sa

reflection f Englishndustrialociety.

Certainly

ithNorthandSouth.he

historian ordd

ind

descriptions

fthe

old

society'.,u/rft

cr.Ur'*fi**,

JLU"

*nooo

" t , , .

. , ,

,

, ; l i

societyandHellstone'svillagelif{,andgrthe'newsociety]'yithMltbn.Thehistorianu/ed

also

Xintoduoed

to

characters,

erhaps

ypical,of thedifferent orts

f

people

hatcould

be

enoounteredn

both

vorlds.

Swely,

such work

s

a

gold

mineof

informationor the

historian

I|ol,rt,r,{^',

seekingo understand

he imel-pdt

rrtat about he

act

hat

t is a wor* offiction.

Is not

iction

i"r r

'

r '

'{

make elieve,with.townnamesike Milton, andcharactershatdonotexist?s t not a

it\

-,.'

reflection f the imes

asexperiencedy

only

one

person,

nd hereby

ecessarily

imitcd n

al

'g

-irL:-.:

Jfu5

iar-tt

Ar s

breadth?.d

ainted reflection at thatlfthe

biases hat an authorsurely

has. beludhg the

(