Mary Barton

by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

What one reviewer at amazon said about Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton:
Mary Barton is the first novel of Elizabeth Gaskell, a female writer who left her influence
upon other English writers of the !th century, like, for instance, "harles #ickens$ %he
book is only an average view about Manchester life in the !th century, focusing its
attentions over the e&treme poverty of the working class, the first labor conflicts in the
pre'dawn of the (ndustrial )evolution, all this connected with a tender love story between
the young Mary Barton and his old time friend *em Wilson$
(n fact, the murder of the young mill owner, Mr$ +enry "arson ' he too an admirer of
Miss Barton ' is not well developed and is not the central point of the novel because the
reader knows all the time who is the real murderer$ ,o, it-s not a surprise at all the ending
of the trial and the revelation of the real murderer in the last chapters$
Miss Gaskell has a simple and an almost n ive vision of the social problems that
harassed the working class in England when the (ndustrial )evolution started$ Even
though, we must recognize that she made a good work trying to denounce the
insensibility of the English government about the problems of the workers and their
families and the infle&ibility of the mill owners and other high economic classes to
negociate with their subordinates$
Mary Barton is a book that will hold the attencion of the readers, men or women, because
Miss Gaskell has an elegant style and really knows how to tell a good story$ .nother
great vintage of this novel are some great characters portrayed with flavour and
undeniable charm, like the old and friendly Mr$ *ob /egh and the hard and anger *ohn
Barton, Mary-s father$