http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-of-the-North-ebook/dp/B007NXKUYI/
How does life unfold for most of us? Plagued by mundane concerns that
can be wearisome and monotonous, but punctuated (we hope) by moments
of utter joy or quiet happiness; conflicts that pester within or
between us, sometimes relieved by unexpected meetings of hearts and
minds that can endure, but are more likely to be fleeting. Such is
life.
And such it was, probably much more so, for married Victorian women in
the latter half of the 1800s. Those glorious creatures, dolled up and
imprisoned in yards of muslin, must never cross the established
separate spheres for men and women—private and domestic for women;
public, economic, and political for men.
Victorian women generally were pampered and infantilized, their main
functions confined to keeping house, bearing children, and being
gracious and pretty enough to adorn a man's image. These were the
expectations , the conventions Margaret tried to thwart, in her own
quiet way.
In this sequel to Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and its
retelling in the BBC miniseries, Margaret settles in a harsh bustling
Northern city. There, she confronts not only her place in a rapidly
changing society but also her growing awareness of her persona as a
woman, one with compelling self-actualizing needs. One who wants a
voice and makes a mark. Margaret, a Victorian feminist, cherished by
the strong, confident, but sensitive man who loves her.