The Book considers what it meant to be a Unitarian in the hungry forties, what Gaskell understood of Chartism and' political economy'; and attitudes to women's rights. It discusses the many ambiguities and instabilities in the book - suggesting where the reader may need to take issue with some of the standard critical assumptions about Gaskell's text, and considers how she might be compared to Dickens - and what Dickens learned from her.And it discusses some contemporary (i.e. Victorian) and recent critical approaches to the book. The aim is to leave the reader with a great deal of respect for a novel that is sometimes underestimated - while pointing out some of its real departures from the best practice of Realist writers, practices that Mrs Gaskell herself did much to invent.

'It's the masters as has wrought this woe; it's the masters as should pay for it.' Set in Manchester in the 1840s - a period of industrial unrest and extreme deprivation - Mary Barton depicts the effects of economic and physical hardship upon the city's working-class community. Paralleling the novel's treatment of the relationship between masters and men, the suffering of the poor, and the workmen's angry response, is the story of Mary herself: a factory-worker's daughter who attracts the attentions of the mill-owner's son, she becomes caught up in the violence of class conflict when a brutal murder forces her to confront her true feelings and allegiances. Mary Barton was praised by contemporary critics for its vivid realism, its convincing characters and its deep sympathy with the poor, and it still has the power to engage and move readers today. This edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Elizabeth Gaskell and includes her husband's two lectures on the Lancashire dialect. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Jem's heart beat violently when he saw the gay, handsome young man approaching, with a light, buoyant step. This, then, was he whom Mary loved. It was, perhaps, no wonder; for he seemed to the poor smith so elegant, so well-appointed, that he felt the superiority in externals, strangely and painfully, for an instant. Then something uprose within him, and told him that "a man's a man for a' that, for a' that, and twice as much a' that." And he no longer felt troubled by the outward appearance of his rival. -from Chapter XV As interest in 19th-century English literature by women has been reinvigorated by a resurgence in popularity of the works of Jane Austen, readers are rediscovering a writer whose fiction, once widely beloved, fell by the wayside. British novelist ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (1810-1865)-whose books were sometimes initially credited to, simply, "Mrs. Gaskell"-is now recognized as having created some of the most complex and broadminded depictions of women in the literature of the age, and is today justly celebrated for her precocious use of the regional dialect and slang of England's industrial North. Mary Barton-Gaskell's first novel, originally published anonymously in 1848-established her reputation as a champion of the working class. Set in Manchester, where the author herself settled as the wife of a progressive preacher, it concerns the trials and tribulations of two poor families, the Bartons and the Wilsons, and a tragedy that cements their joint fate and highlights the class divide in highly stratified Victorian society. Friend and literary companion to the likes of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bront-the latter of whom Gaskell wrote an acclaimed 1857biography-Gaskell is today being restored to her rightful place alongside them. This charming replica volume is an excellent opportunity for 21st-century fans of British literature to embrace one of its most unjustly forgotten authors.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Mary Barton is a story of the daughter of trade unionist, who rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner’s son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the two men. Through Mary's dilemma, and the moving portrayal of her father the novel powerfully dramatizes the class divides of the 'hungry forties' as personal tragedy.

This eBook edition of "Mary Barton" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Mary Barton is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between rich and poor. Soon his wife dies—he blames it on her grief over the disappearance of her sister Esther. Having already lost his son Tom at a young age, Barton is left to raise his daughter, Mary, alone and now falls into depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist, trade-union movement. Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Some of Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters.