Mary Barton (Oxford World's Classics)
Set in Manchester in the 1840s, 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, who becomes caught up in the violence of class conflict when a brutal murder forces her to confront her true feelings and allegiances.
This new edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Gaskell. The introduction provides historical and biographical context to the novel, a survey of critical responses to Mary Barton, and argues that Gaskell was chiefly concerned with the importance of communication as a means of healing breaches between people. In addition, the book contains an up-to-date critical biography, revised notes and appendixes that include Gaskell's rough draft and outline of the novel's conclusion. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This new edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Gaskell. The introduction provides historical and biographical context to the novel, a survey of critical responses to Mary Barton, and argues that Gaskell was chiefly concerned with the importance of communication as a means of healing breaches between people. In addition, the book contains an up-to-date critical biography, revised notes and appendixes that include Gaskell's rough draft and outline of the novel's conclusion. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum 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, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Community Reviews
Re-read this first time since grad school. I had much fonder memories of this than seem justified based on this re-read. I found myself skimming A LOT. The novel is very similar in overall approach to North and South, but nowhere near as well executed. Barton starts with lots of attention to the condition of the lower classes under industrialization. Then it transitions into a romance novel with a murder plot/mystery, with a christian redemption/forgiveness finish. When I first read it, I think I liked it more because I just had not been exposed to what life was like for those people at that time. And I liked the way she used a more conventional plot as sugar to help the medicine go down. But now that I am familiar with those conditions, and I've read other much better novels concerned with that topic, this one just feels clumsy. There's a fair mount of cliche, and a fair amount of boring repetition, and a fair amount of completely absurd character decisions.
Just as an example - blaming your sister in law for the death of your wife. The wife died in child birth after the sister in law disappeared to follow a suitor. How is the causality supposed to work there exactly? Then after berating the sister in law and pushing her down on the street, the guy immediately changes his mind but can't find her because a cop came along, found her on the street, and rather than asking who did this the cop arrests her for vagrancy and she ends up in jail for a MONTH. Like, what?
One other - these are both from the first third of the book by the way - a character rejects a proposal unequivocally and forcefully. She has been trying to avoid the guy for a long time. Then literally a minute after he walks out the door, she immediately changes her mind and settles in her head that he is the most important thing in her life and she must marry him, but she won't tell him that or give him any clue whatsoever that she has changed her mind, and she expects him to woo her again after literally saying "I will never marry you". The change of mind makes no sense. The expectations make no sense.
And I'm leaving out the biggest absurdity because it's right at the end. It's just bad writing, guided entirely by the needs of the plot. North and South was much better. For that matter, read some Dickens - he doesn't focus as much on actual factory conditions as you might get with Gaskell (except in Hard Times, which is decent but not as focused), but he's much much better on poverty in general and he's WAY WAY better at the plotting and characters.
Just as an example - blaming your sister in law for the death of your wife. The wife died in child birth after the sister in law disappeared to follow a suitor. How is the causality supposed to work there exactly? Then after berating the sister in law and pushing her down on the street, the guy immediately changes his mind but can't find her because a cop came along, found her on the street, and rather than asking who did this the cop arrests her for vagrancy and she ends up in jail for a MONTH. Like, what?
One other - these are both from the first third of the book by the way - a character rejects a proposal unequivocally and forcefully. She has been trying to avoid the guy for a long time. Then literally a minute after he walks out the door, she immediately changes her mind and settles in her head that he is the most important thing in her life and she must marry him, but she won't tell him that or give him any clue whatsoever that she has changed her mind, and she expects him to woo her again after literally saying "I will never marry you". The change of mind makes no sense. The expectations make no sense.
And I'm leaving out the biggest absurdity because it's right at the end. It's just bad writing, guided entirely by the needs of the plot. North and South was much better. For that matter, read some Dickens - he doesn't focus as much on actual factory conditions as you might get with Gaskell (except in Hard Times, which is decent but not as focused), but he's much much better on poverty in general and he's WAY WAY better at the plotting and characters.
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