Mary Barton Author:Elizabeth Gaskell This novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between rich and poor. Soon his wife dies -- he blames it on her grief over the disappearance of her sister Esther. Having already lost his son Tom at a y... more »oung age, Barton is left to raise his daughter, Mary, alone and now falls into depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist, trade-union movement.
The novel explores the great clashes between capital and labour, which arose from rapid industrialisation and problems of trade in the mid-nineteenth century. But these clashes are dramatized through personal struggles. John Barton has to reconcile his personal conscience with his socialist duty, risking his life and liberty in the process. His daughter Mary is caught between two lovers, from opposing classes -- worker and manufacturer. And at the heart of the narrative lies a murder which implicates them all.« less