Sounds good--North and South also begins with the Main and Hazard ancestors in England and France--in the case of the Mains, they are French Huegonauts (sp?) fleeing the Inquisition, and the Hazard ancestor just murdered his abusive stepfather, while he was interning at an iron foundry, and thus learning the trade, and had to flee to America.
So he took the iron master's name. His stepfather was illiterate and the iron master helped him escape.
The themes of iron and war and slavery run right through the trilogy.
John Jakes wrote the 8! Kent novels first.
He must be a very fast writer, for the 8+3=11 novels, each about 700 pages with many characters and story lines, were written in a fairly short time, less than a decade, I think.
I have finished reading the N and S trilogy to Vol II, and will write about the differences between the books/novels and the TV miniseries when I finish reading all 3 books.
I agree with other critics, of the 3 TV series, the last does not match the first 2.
It's very confusing to have Charlie played by a different actor.
There are other problems due to the screenwriters' over simplification.
In general the books are much better than the TV.
That is why I am always in favor of reading, and those who only watch movies are very shallow--
KMKaung-
8-11-2016
