Are You Reading ‘North and South’ Yet? Because It’s Awesome

This is the week that we would normally have a Billfold Book Club meetup, but we aren’t going to be looking at Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South until Thursday, October 16 (chapters 1–25 only, with chapters 26–52 for Thursday, Nov 20).

So I wanted to remind y’all that North and South was still happening, and that we are going to judge these fictional characters on how they manage their money.

I’ve started reading N&S, and I am just tickled that this 159-year-old book hits so many familiar tropes:

— Margaret, our heroine, is not pretty. — Well, she’s not as pretty as her cousin Edith, anyway. — She’s actually secretly pretty. — Way prettier than Edith, if you catch her in the right light. — The world just doesn’t appreciate how pretty Margaret is. — They don’t appreciate her intelligence, either. — Except this one guy. — He totally does. — He’s not pretty either. — Just kidding, he’s smolderingly hot if you catch him in the right light.

And that’s all in the first few pages.

Enjoy reading!

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