Mary Barton

ΓÇÿO Jem,her father wonΓÇÖt listen to meand itΓÇÖs you must save Mary! YouΓÇÖre like a brother to herΓÇÖ Mary Bartonthe daughter of disillusioned trade unionistrejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carsonthe mill ownerΓÇÖs sonand making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspectMary finds herself painfully torn between the two men. Through MaryΓÇÖs dilemmaand the moving portrayal of her fatherthe embittered and courageous activist John BartonMary Barton (1848) powerfully dramatizes the class divides of the ΓÇÿhungry fortiesΓÇÖ as personal tragedy. In its social and political settingit looks towards Elizabeth GaskellΓÇÖs great novels of the industrial revolutionin particular North and South. In his introduction Maconald Daly discusses Elizabeth GaskellΓÇÖs first novel as a pioneering book that made public the great division between rich and poor ΓÇô a theme that inspired much of her finest work.