Mary Barton

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

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.

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.

INDEX PREFACE. CHAPTER I. A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. CHAPTER II. A MANCHESTER TEA-PARTY. CHAPTER III. JOHN BARTON'S GREAT TROUBLE. CHAPTER IV. OLD ALICE'S HISTORY. CHAPTER V. THE MILL ON FIRE—JEM WILSON TO THE RESCUE. CHAPTER VI. POVERTY AND DEATH. CHAPTER VII. JEM WILSON'S REPULSE. CHAPTER VIII. MARGARET'S DEBUT AS A PUBLIC SINGER. CHAPTER IX. BARTON'S LONDON EXPERIENCES. CHAPTER X. RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. CHAPTER XI. MR. CARSON'S INTENTIONS REVEALED. CHAPTER XII. OLD ALICE'S BAIRN. CHAPTER XIII. A TRAVELLER'S TALES. CHAPTER XIV. JEM'S INTERVIEW WITH POOR ESTHER. CHAPTER XV. A VIOLENT MEETING BETWEEN THE RIVALS. CHAPTER XVI. MEETING BETWEEN MASTERS AND WORKMEN. CHAPTER XVII. BARTON'S NIGHT-ERRAND. CHAPTER XVIII. MURDER. CHAPTER XIX. JEM WILSON ARRESTED ON SUSPICION. CHAPTER XX. MARY'S DREAM—AND THE AWAKENING. CHAPTER XXI. ESTHER'S MOTIVE IN SEEKING MARY. CHAPTER XXII. MARY'S EFFORTS TO PROVE AN ALIBI. CHAPTER XXIII. THE SUB-PŒNA. CHAPTER XXIV. WITH THE DYING. CHAPTER XXV. MRS. WILSON'S DETERMINATION. CHAPTER XXVI. THE JOURNEY TO LIVERPOOL. CHAPTER XXVII. IN THE LIVERPOOL DOCKS. CHAPTER XXVIII. "JOHN CROPPER, AHOY!" CHAPTER XXIX. A TRUE BILL AGAINST JEM. CHAPTER XXX. JOB LEGH'S DECEPTION. CHAPTER XXXI. HOW MARY PASSED THE NIGHT. CHAPTER XXXII. THE TRIAL AND VERDICT—"NOT GUILTY." CHAPTER XXXIII. REQUIESCAT IN PACE. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE RETURN HOME. CHAPTER XXXV. "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES." CHAPTER XXXVI. JEM'S INTERVIEW WITH MR. DUNCOMBE. CHAPTER XXXVII. DETAILS CONNECTED WITH THE MURDER. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CONCLUSION.

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.