This is a letter I sent to Nancy after finishing North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Dear Nancy,
My enjoyment of North and South was so much the greater because you found it for me. I didn’t expect my search for books I really enjoyed to produce one this good so early. Up until now, all of my favorite books have been books I think I could have found on my own—great famous classics. This had me worried that I was asking talented recommenders for help needlessly: To find books I really liked, I need only read from 100-best-books-ever lists. And then you recommended North and South, a book and an author I’d never heard of, which I'd guess I wouldn’t have found on my own.
I haven't wanted there to be more to read when I finished a book as much as I did for North and SouthI wanted to know what Margaret did after the book ended, after she’d decided she needed to find time for a life’s work in addition to spending time fulfilling the duties life presented her with. I wanted to know what that life’s work would be and what it would be like for her to accomplish it.
I wished she were my friend. For anyone who is that appealing when each of her thoughts and feelings are exposed by a probing author is surely a treat to visit with when she’s allowed to present only her best face, as we do to our friends in real life.
So thank you.
