Gaskell stays within the conventions of her genre but builds a good narrative

Started reading Elizabeth Gaskell's (long) novel North and South (1855, ergo not about the Civil War) and on first impression it seem to be well written and entertaining, to a degree, but hardly groundbreaking - an example of the kind of magazine-serialized fiction popular in Victorian England, a "comedy of manners" built on a series of contrasts, as hinted at in the title. The basic story line: two cousins, Margaret and Edith, more or less raised together as M's family, her father a poor country parson in Hampshire, send her off to live w/ her cousin's family in London and to learn the ways of the world. The story begins as E is about to marry a dashing young soldier - her family's a little disappointed that he's not wealthy, but accept that it's a love match - and move w/ him to Corfu; in part because her cousin is leaving, Margaret returns to her family in the country, and shortly thereafter her father declares that he no longer can continue his work as a parson and the family must relocate to a newly arisen industrial city in the north (it's called Milton - could possibly be Manchester?) where he will work as a private tutor (and they will have even less money - plus giving up a life in the beautiful English countryside. So there are at least 2 North/South dichotomies going on: North and South England (i.e., old green England with its rural character and traditions and the newly ascendant industrial world, with everything focused on commerce and profits) as well as England v Corfu/Mediterranean - though this has not yet (about percent through) been developed. The story moves along pretty well, but without any great literary flourishes: Gaskell is an etiolated version of the Victorian novelist - without the perspicacity of an Eliot, the humor and sentimentality of Dickens, the confidentiality of Trollope, the world view of Hardy. For one thing, the personal relations among the characters - Edith's marriage, the pursuit of Margaret by E's new brother-in-law are just delivered straight up, no development, little subtlety. And what about M's father and his weird decision to give up his profession and move the family to the far north? EG doesn't examine or explain this at all - a huge opportunity missed, I think. That said, she's working within the conventions or her era but the conventions themselves give her a great deal of latitude to build an entertaining narrative; I'd be shocked in N&S has not been made into a BBC miniseries. 

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