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Mary Barton (Penguin Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $8.00
You Save: $ 2.00 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Mary Barton (Penguin Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780140434644
ISBN: 014043464X
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 1997-04-01
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780140434644
ISBN: 014043464X
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 464
Publication Date: 1997-04-01
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of Mary Barton (Penguin Classics)
This is Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, a widely acclaimed work based on the actual murder, in 1831, of a progressive mill owner. It follows Mary Barton, daughter of a man implicated in the murder, through her adolescence, when she suffers the advances of the mill owner, and later through
love and marriage. Set in Manchester, between 1837-42, it paints a powerful and moving picture of working-class life in Victorian England.
love and marriage. Set in Manchester, between 1837-42, it paints a powerful and moving picture of working-class life in Victorian England.
Customer Reviews of Mary Barton (Penguin Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Lesser-known doesn't mean it isn't as good!
Review: This book shows the opposite side of life of Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters. Where Molly Gibson (another girl sharing her name appears in Mary Barton, too!) deals with a pettish and jealous stepmother and the perils of moving in society, Mary Barton's father worked the looms that perhaps provided the Gibsons with their fine dresses.
Unlike Dickens in Hard Times, Gaskell does not dwell so much on the physical aspects of Manchester (OK, Dickens didn't actually write about Manchester, but the city he used *was* Manchester) and their symbolism of moral and societal pollution, but she shows the effects of man's inhumanity to man. Her morality is quietly moving, not dogmatic. The workers' agitations and subsequent deadly repercussions are dealt with in a firm but understading light. While she condemns the act, the motivating factors (i.e. workers' treatment) can be understood.
Gaskell's working class book isn't as slick or symbolic as, say Germinal, but it is effective. Although the love story in itself is moving, we can also see it as the nobility of human spirit no matter where it lives or works. While the novel is titled Mary Barton, Mary serves as a tool to teach us and reprove us.
I highly recommend Wives and Daughters as well--Gaskell has surely matured and her dialogue is sharp and social criticism even more biting.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A keen observer of humanity
Review: After watching the 2005 BBC TV-adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel "North and South", I was intrigued to go back and read the novel. I liked it so much, that I wanted to read more, and so found "Mary Barton". In both novels, I was impressed with Elizabeth Gaskell's keen insight into the human spirit - despair, doubt, kindness, love, compassion, hopelessness, loyalty, frivolity, and most of everything in between. She has a rare talent to create believable male and female characters (with their inherent differences in perception and interpretation) at all walks of life, and to inspire compassion and understanding for all her characters' actions. The plot is largely divided between mystery and romance, both of which are done well. This is definitely a book I would recommend to fellow Austen fans!
Compared to the majority of modern novels, her writing has more of a leisurely pace to it and she takes the time to describe the emotional inner workings of her characters as much as she devotes to outward plot development. The frequent historical or literary references not immediately at a current-day reader's fingertips are explained well in this edition's notes at the end for those who want to know (like me).
Historically, this book is a fascinating treatise of the working class toil, life, and death in the mid-1800s in Manchester, England, the rise of trade unions, and the trouble attendant therewith. Gaskell's astute observations about the living conditions of the poor in that day and age make for a compelling and thought-provoking read. It is hard to leave her books not feeling that the two opposite points of view of masters and men can be true, and that compassion might go a long way to bridge the gap.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: dissappointed and read only half of it
Review: I ordered the book after watching "north and south" tv adaptation
to another of elisabeth gaskell's book. i was curious to know more from this writer.
but this one was nothing similar:
the plot is slow, including irrelevant and too detailed side stories.
the main characters are not clear and are very distant to the reader,
in a way it's hard to care for them. so it was easy leaving the book in the middle.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "A Story of Manchester Life"
Review: Although this is not Gaskell's best novel, it is still well done and contains quite a bit of drama and romance. Much of the book concentrates on life in a manufacturing town, however, the love story has a prominent place. The characters in this book are lovable and fallable, as usual in Gaskell's work, and overall very realistic. This novel is set up much like "North and South" yet not as well put together, and with quite different characters. There is the struggle between masters and men and a love affair unrequitted on the female end with family and friends dropping like flies on account of mental or physical anxiety. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes Gaskell, Dickens, and the time period of early industrialization in England.
As to the edition, Everyman's Library always makes a nice hard copy. It includes a biography and timeline of work as well as the author's preface and an introduction by Jenny Uglow.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mary Barton
Review: Set in the industrial city of Manchester in northern England, this is one of Mrs. Gaskell's "social novels" (NORTH AND SOUTH was another), in which she attacked the harsh treatment of factory workers by the owners. It being a novel, there is also a love story. Mary Barton, daughter of a soured mill-hand, attracts the attention of two men: Henry Carson, son of one of the mill owners, and Jem Wilson, a worker. She chooses Carson (a big mistake, of course). Later Carson is killed and Wilson is suspected of the crime with jealousy as his motive. But Mary learns that her father, John, is actually the murderer, and she spends a good portion of the second half of the book trying to prove Wilson's innocence (she now realizes her mistake in picking Carson over her true feelings of love for Wilson) without implicating her father. John Barton is wracked with guilt, however, and makes a deathbed confession to Carson's father that redeems him. It's an energetic book, and the story moves forward swiftly. The trial scenes are especially stirring. MARY BARTON was one of the first novels set exclusively among the working classes, and the book was highly regarded by the public and critics alike (though the Manchester mill owners protested against it).
Review Summary: Lesser-known doesn't mean it isn't as good!
Review: This book shows the opposite side of life of Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters. Where Molly Gibson (another girl sharing her name appears in Mary Barton, too!) deals with a pettish and jealous stepmother and the perils of moving in society, Mary Barton's father worked the looms that perhaps provided the Gibsons with their fine dresses.
Unlike Dickens in Hard Times, Gaskell does not dwell so much on the physical aspects of Manchester (OK, Dickens didn't actually write about Manchester, but the city he used *was* Manchester) and their symbolism of moral and societal pollution, but she shows the effects of man's inhumanity to man. Her morality is quietly moving, not dogmatic. The workers' agitations and subsequent deadly repercussions are dealt with in a firm but understading light. While she condemns the act, the motivating factors (i.e. workers' treatment) can be understood.
Gaskell's working class book isn't as slick or symbolic as, say Germinal, but it is effective. Although the love story in itself is moving, we can also see it as the nobility of human spirit no matter where it lives or works. While the novel is titled Mary Barton, Mary serves as a tool to teach us and reprove us.
I highly recommend Wives and Daughters as well--Gaskell has surely matured and her dialogue is sharp and social criticism even more biting.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A keen observer of humanity
Review: After watching the 2005 BBC TV-adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel "North and South", I was intrigued to go back and read the novel. I liked it so much, that I wanted to read more, and so found "Mary Barton". In both novels, I was impressed with Elizabeth Gaskell's keen insight into the human spirit - despair, doubt, kindness, love, compassion, hopelessness, loyalty, frivolity, and most of everything in between. She has a rare talent to create believable male and female characters (with their inherent differences in perception and interpretation) at all walks of life, and to inspire compassion and understanding for all her characters' actions. The plot is largely divided between mystery and romance, both of which are done well. This is definitely a book I would recommend to fellow Austen fans!
Compared to the majority of modern novels, her writing has more of a leisurely pace to it and she takes the time to describe the emotional inner workings of her characters as much as she devotes to outward plot development. The frequent historical or literary references not immediately at a current-day reader's fingertips are explained well in this edition's notes at the end for those who want to know (like me).
Historically, this book is a fascinating treatise of the working class toil, life, and death in the mid-1800s in Manchester, England, the rise of trade unions, and the trouble attendant therewith. Gaskell's astute observations about the living conditions of the poor in that day and age make for a compelling and thought-provoking read. It is hard to leave her books not feeling that the two opposite points of view of masters and men can be true, and that compassion might go a long way to bridge the gap.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: dissappointed and read only half of it
Review: I ordered the book after watching "north and south" tv adaptation
to another of elisabeth gaskell's book. i was curious to know more from this writer.
but this one was nothing similar:
the plot is slow, including irrelevant and too detailed side stories.
the main characters are not clear and are very distant to the reader,
in a way it's hard to care for them. so it was easy leaving the book in the middle.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "A Story of Manchester Life"
Review: Although this is not Gaskell's best novel, it is still well done and contains quite a bit of drama and romance. Much of the book concentrates on life in a manufacturing town, however, the love story has a prominent place. The characters in this book are lovable and fallable, as usual in Gaskell's work, and overall very realistic. This novel is set up much like "North and South" yet not as well put together, and with quite different characters. There is the struggle between masters and men and a love affair unrequitted on the female end with family and friends dropping like flies on account of mental or physical anxiety. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes Gaskell, Dickens, and the time period of early industrialization in England.
As to the edition, Everyman's Library always makes a nice hard copy. It includes a biography and timeline of work as well as the author's preface and an introduction by Jenny Uglow.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mary Barton
Review: Set in the industrial city of Manchester in northern England, this is one of Mrs. Gaskell's "social novels" (NORTH AND SOUTH was another), in which she attacked the harsh treatment of factory workers by the owners. It being a novel, there is also a love story. Mary Barton, daughter of a soured mill-hand, attracts the attention of two men: Henry Carson, son of one of the mill owners, and Jem Wilson, a worker. She chooses Carson (a big mistake, of course). Later Carson is killed and Wilson is suspected of the crime with jealousy as his motive. But Mary learns that her father, John, is actually the murderer, and she spends a good portion of the second half of the book trying to prove Wilson's innocence (she now realizes her mistake in picking Carson over her true feelings of love for Wilson) without implicating her father. John Barton is wracked with guilt, however, and makes a deathbed confession to Carson's father that redeems him. It's an energetic book, and the story moves forward swiftly. The trial scenes are especially stirring. MARY BARTON was one of the first novels set exclusively among the working classes, and the book was highly regarded by the public and critics alike (though the Manchester mill owners protested against it).