Its enthralling, the first and last 100 pages are difficult to put down. The novel follows the lives of the miners in detail, yet it is never a tedious read. The descriptions of the mine are matter of fact and horrific. The villages are rife with promiscuity, in the fields, in abandoned buildings, behind the slag heaps. Worked like beasts of burden in the mines, on the surface the only thing to do is take the only pleasure that is free.

At different points in the story we see the perspective of the surrounding bourgeois, a pit manger, small shareholders, and the like. The juxtaposition between their lives and those of the miners makes clear how vapid their sympathy is and how frivolous their charity. Their plenty only evokes disgust. But they are not villains, just cogs in the machine of capital. The politics are much more sophisticated than the 'if only (good) masters and workers talked' policy of [b:North and South|156538|North and South|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1699604581l/156538._SY75_.jpg|1016482]