How long does it take to read North and South?
North and South by Mrs. Gaskell takes about 8 hours 22 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 8 hours 22 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1855. 456 pages, about 125,400 words.
17 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 13 hours 56 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 8 hours 22 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 14 minutes |
The page count is the median across 70 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
Subjects: Social classes, Children of clergy, Mothers and daughters, Young women, Fiction, Women
