Lynness - January read

I know the assignment was to find a book that I've been meaning to read (which I did, Redwall), but I've been wanting to read North and South (not the John Jakes Civil War one- this is set in England) and our library system doesn't have it.  (Though they have another novel- Cranford- by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, which I find tedious and can't get into).  I thought about buying it, since I liked the movie so much, but then realized that it was written in 1855 and was probably in the public domain.  Project Gutenberg had the text, and although it's definitely not my favorite way to read, I am enjoying it and have lain Redwall aside for now.  If you like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte, you'll like this.  If you have trouble getting into this type of book, start with the movie: 4 hour-long episodes on 2 DVDs produced by the BBC.  Although I hear the ending is altered a little, so far the book is very true to the movie.  Each chapter starts with a verse, and I just LOVED the image that I have put in bold in this one prior to chapter 6.

'Unwatch'd the garden bough shall sway,
The tender blossom flutter down,
Unloved that beech will gather brown,
The maple burn itself away;

Unloved, the sun-flower, shining fair,
Ray round with flames her disk of seed,
And many a rose-carnation feed
With summer spice the humming air;

*    *    *    *    *    *

Till from the garden and the wild
A fresh association blow,
And year by year the landscape grow
Familiar to the stranger's child;

As year by year the labourer tills
His wonted glebe, or lops the glades;
And year by year our memory fades
From all the circle of the hills.'
TENNYSON