num_pages: 444
description: 'Here civilisation works its miracles, and civilised man is turned almost into a savage.' - Alexis de TocquevilleManchester was the shock city of Britain's industrial revolution: the working people not merely degraded, but conscious of their degradation and of the comfort of those who live off the profits of their labours. John Barton is a desperate man watching his family and friends dying of want in a world where the rich enjoy leisure and luxury. Refusing to accept the injustice, he is drawn into political murder while his naive and beautiful daughter Mary is tempted by the attractions of a rich lover, until she is forced to face reality by the plight of a brave and innocent man. The crime can not go unpunished, but in Mary Barton's Manchester it seems that life itself is punishment enough.A social document of astonishing power, and a compelling love story, Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel established her at the forefront of the novelists of her time and gave fiction new importance as a record of the age.
language: English
title: Mary Barton
titlecomplete: Mary Barton (Everyman's Library)
genres: Fiction, Historical, British Literature, Classic Literature, Romance, Literature, Classics, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 19512
places: Manchester, England, England
publisher: The Everyman Library