“Mary Barton” by Elizabeth Gaskell had been lying on top of one of my bookshelves for some time At least for 3 years, it remained in the same corner of my book shelf, untouched and unread. I worshipped Gaskell and I would normally never let a work of hers that I possessed, lay unused especially for such a long time. But the blurb behind the book and I am quoting verbatim from Penguin Classic publication –“Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner’s son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the two me.”Gave this book a very “Hard Times “feel and I was not sure I wanted to tackle sadness or hardship when my reality was hardly joyous for more reasons than one! Anyway, Classic Club declared it November event as the Victorian Literature era and it seemed like a good time for me to prod myself to finally take this book down and start reading it!!“Mary Barton”, as the name suggests is the story of Mary Barton, a young girl apprenticed as a dressmaker, whose father, John Barton is a mill worker in the Manchester factories, circa. 1841-42. As the story progresses, the reader realizes that Mary, like many other girls, has aspirations of a better life – a life outside the squalor and poverty of the mill workers colony and dreams of being a grand lady. This cherished dream of hers gets a boost, when Henry Carson, the wealthy and handsome son of Mr. Carson one of the wealthiest mill owners of the city, starts courting her. She is also courted by Jem Wilson, a workshop supervisor and the son of John Barton’s closest friend; however in her aspirations for higher life, she does not encourage Jem’s suit. It is very clear that Mary Barton is not in love with Henry Carson, but nevertheless is flattered by his attention; furthermore the good life that she so wishes, is not only for self, but also for her father, whom she loves desperately and wants him to be comfortable in his old age. All this while, the socio-economic condition of the Manchester Mill workers, worsens; as wages are brought down lower and lower, many of the factory workers are laid off and their children and other dependents begin to die due to malnutrition and illness. John Barton, one of the spokesperson for the mill workers trade union grows bitter and bitter as first the mill owners and then the government turn away from the pitiful conditions of the workers and deaths due to starvation increase. The increased divide finally lead the trade unionists to take some harsh actions, to have higher authorities listen to their demands. Amidst this unrest, Henry Carson is shot and Jem Wilson is imprisoned as the prime accused. It is now up to Mary Barton to decide what her heart truly wants and how can she go ahead in achieving its object.To begin with never go by the blurb, it says what the book is, without really saying what the book is. Therefore not only do not judge the book by its cover, but also use discretion when reading a blurb. To begin with, the blurb makes Mary Barton out to be one social climbing opportunist, which she is anything but. Like all young girls, she dreams of better and richer life, but that’s for the enriched value of life itself. How many of us have not wished for a better, more prosperous life? In a restricted, confined Victorian society, Mary leveraged the only option available to her – that of marrying someone better. She is conscious of Jem Wilson’s liking for her and because she thinks that she may seek another man, goes out of her way, to not ensure she does not encourage him or raise his hopes, that may lead to him being hurt. The wish of for bettering herself does not discount the fact that she is a generous and a loyal friend and a dutiful daughter. Her decision are made well before any shots are fired and there is no social climbing in her sincere wish to do what is best and what is right, all the while following the dictates of her heart! You will really like Mary for all her courage and gusto in doing everything in her power to make someone’s life better or comfortable. The supporting characters are also brilliantly drawn – you cannot help but be touched by the humanity and kindness in both John Barton and Job Leigh’s character. The simplicity and dignity of Alice and Margaret’s life and conduct is wonderful and extremely joyous, especially in the atmosphere that is both sobering and tragic. You cannot help but love the Wilson cousins – Jem and Will; they steal the reader’s heart with their honesty and earnestness. Finally, there is Mr. Carson, a wealthy man, who worked his way to the top from his childhood in grinding poverty and who in his most testing times, showed how much greatness, mankind is truly capable off! I know Ms. Gaskell wrote this book as a social commentary of her times, but it’s more than just a social drama – there is a sense of thrill and chase, especially in the second half of the book, that makes you want to reach the next page as soon as possible. The pace never flags – it a big book, 494 pages – I read it through the night. No credit to my reading skills and all kudos to Ms. Gaskell fast moving plot that keeps you going. There are bits and pieces on Christianity and faith which may a bit challenging, but are completely in keeping with the social times of the era she wrote in and are far and few and do not really distract one from the plot! One of the key factors of this novel which makes it easy to read despite the very serious nature of the subject is that Ms. Gaskell is never didactic or pedantic. She never preaches, but observes and provides incidents, that are written with extreme sympathy and understanding. Not for once did she make this tenacious issue black and white – her sympathy was for the workers, but she was gentle in her exhortations of the owners, allowing them with far more human elements, than books of such genre usually allow. Most importantly, she succeeds in showcasing that even in amid most painful and difficult times, good things do happen and the most vengeful is capable of kindness and forgiveness.
Either you're a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell's works, or you heard that name and thought it sounded kind of like a cultured fart. If you're a member of the latter, I'll briefly explain what you should expect from a novel by this wonderful, wonderful woman. If you've never read a book from the Victorian period, I'll try to tempt you with Mary Barton as a starter.Gaskell was very interested in women's suffrage and their overall role in Victorian society, so many of her novels, like Mary Barton, center around a strong, flawed young woman who comes into her own in an industrial world. This formula actually lends itself extraordinarily well to Gaskell's other main focuses: industrialization and its relationship to class division (i.e. poverty and wealth in the same city). Amongst these meaty concepts, Gaskell dabbles in religion, familial ties, love, and like a crap ton more (she's long-winded, but she's got a lot of neat stuff to say).So, knowing this, how does Mary Barton fare as an Elizabeth Gaskell novel as well as its own independent work? It's juicy, my friends. Imagine a steak, and imagine the marinade dripping off the steak, and the hand holding the steak is trying not to dirty itself but it can't help it because the steak is so juicy and the hand's destiny is so closely entwined with that of the steak. That's Mary Barton and its readers.Delicious, relevant, and necessary metaphors aside, the novel follows the life and times of a factory worker's daughter, named Mary Barton, after her mother. I won't give away much, although the summary on the back of my copy basically spoiled the first 300 pages for me. What you can expect is a young, vain girl growing up and learning from her mistakes in the face of the countless personal tragedies she endures. I've mostly read proto-feminist literature from the Victorian period, but what's notable about Gaskell's female characters, Mary included, is that they can't be pigeonholed into a common trope just because they have vaginas. Gaskell really endeavors to share each characters' every single thought (excessive, yes) and so leaves us with a cast that was inclusive and ahead of its time at publication.What you've got to bear in mind when diving into the world of the Victorians is that most novels were serialized before each chapter was compiled into book form. Basically, authors would send a chapter weekly to be published in major magazines that were much more affordable to the common rabble, and would offer the completed book with the final few chapters a few weeks before the story was to conclude in a serial. This kind of affects the pacing, as the ending of Victorian novels can feel rushed where other sections felt way too stretched out. Whether or not certain characters live or die may seem obvious to you at the beginning of the novel,but when you treat each chapter like a week of prime time television it's easy to see how the plot evolved/morphed after its inception. Context matters, kiddies, because it changes the way we experience and interact with art.If you're not sold on this book yet, I'll try one last time to tempt you with the prospect of a history lesson. Since Mary Barton is a work of realistic fiction, it can give you a super-accurate glimpse into the life of a Victorian. One minute, you'll be thinking about how Mary and Jem should throw custom to the wind and just bang already, then WHOOSH, you suddenly realize the importance of feminine modesty pre-1900. It's cool! Mary Barton is long, but as far as I'm concerned, it's free from extraneous detail. Check it out, laugh at how sexually repressed Victorians were, and have yourself a great learning experience.
What do You think about Mary Barton (2006)?
How to Tell if You are in an Elizabeth Gaskell novel:1. Someone you love just died.2. You live in an industrial wasteland, which is wrapped in a peculiarly permanent winter.3. Your father makes terrible decisions. You love him unconditionally.4. Someone just dropped dead.5. You believe that starving, striking workers and their capitalist oppressors could remedy vast structural inequalities by having tea together.6. You just spurned a man. Immediately, you realize that you are actually in love with him. But it would be unfeminine to say so.7. You are very, very hungry.8. Typhoid.9. Your friends are spinsters. One of them dresses her cow in flannel. You find this endearing.10. You, your future spouse, and some spinsters are the only people still alive.
—Mary
I had loved North & South, liked Cranford and I must confess that I was totally unprepared for my reaction to this Mary Barton. I loved it!!!I am a bit undecided on what to mention first, Mary Barton focus on Mary who is apparently the main character but more than that is focusses on the industrial side of the city of Manchester in the 1840s, on the relationships between Masters and workers, but especially on the workers living conditions. The misery that forced them to desperate acts from seeing their families starve.I think Gaskell is brilliant analysing human nature at its best and at its worse, I loved the voice of the narrator who narrated the story yes, but also explained what needed to be explained and reflected about what leads men to do what they do.But the second half of Mary Barton is also a murder mystery. A man is murdered and another is accused and we know, like Mary does, that the accused is innocent. Fortunately something can be done to prove his innocence and we follow her as she tries to do exactly that.Gaskell gives a voice to the desperate, the famished, the miserable, even to the prostitutes of the time. This is not a happy book, although is does have a happy ending, but I closed it with a happy sigh because I love these big social analyses and Gaskell tells the story with a fast paced compelling way that kept me hooked till the last page.Grade: 4.5/5
—Ana T.
After having read "North and South" quite a long time ago I had forgotten why this woman was a master in storytelling.Because it seems impossible that a novel written in the classic way, with long sentences and a "stiff" structure with ancient vocabulary and dealing with the pros and conts of the revolutionary working class in the industrial England of the late XIXth century, might engage the reader the way that "Mary Barton" does.Even with all these formal constraints Gaskell manages to transmit such contained emotion that sometimes I didn't realise I had stopped breathing with anxiety.Mary Barton is a working class girl, daughter of an impoverished widowed man. Her pretty face catches the attention of Mr. Carson one of the wealthy lads of Manchester and the possibility of seeing the end of their meagre existence leads her to dismiss her true love, Jem Wilson with dreadful consequences for all of them.Partly historical and sociological thriller which portrays the situation of a whole generation and the start of what we call progress in the working system. Deeply meaningful characters who will stick to your mind long after you have closed the book.Loved it!
—Dolors
