Mary Barton (Broadview Literary Texts)

by ElizabethGaskell (Author), JenniferFoster (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $7.03

  Mary Barton first appeared in 1848, and has since become one of the best known novels on the 'condition of England,' part of a nineteenth-century British trend to understand the enormous cultural, economic and social changes wrought by industrialization.

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.47

  Mary Barton(1848),subtitled 'A Tale of Manchester Life',is the first novel by Mrs Gaskell(1810-65).The entirely working-class cast of characters in this novel was then an innovation.The background story is Manchester in the 'hungry forties'and the acute poverty of the unemployed mill-hands. Mary Batson,daughter of an embittered worker,wins the attention of Henry Carson,son of one of the employers.But a group of workmen plot his murder as a warning to his class,and it falls upon Mary's father to perform the deed.Suspicion lies with Mary's working class admirer,Jed,who is tried for his life.Finally,John Barton is driven by guilt to confess.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $3.47

  This is a tale of Dives and Lazarus, of the comfortable pinnacle and the miserable base of the Victorian social pyramid. It is told, however, without simplification and without hatred.

• New

  Paperback
  2008

  $11.86

  '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.