Mary Barton (1848)

Really enjoyed the first half of the novel, found the second half a slog. I wish Gaskell had been less quick to forgive the 'masters'! ( )

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It detailed the heart-wrenching plight the poor endured in Victorian England. It was written around the time Dickens was writing his earlier novels. It went into the desparate measures people can resort to out of deprivation and desparation, from prostitution to murder. So sad that many of our ancestors endured (and some people still do) such horrid living conditions in many parts of the world throughout history. Such needless suffering that all could have (and still could be) prevented. ( )

A far finer-grained report of the ways, means and place of 19th century industrial England than Dickens, I think, so much so that I'm slow to consider reading Dickens again for a long time. Not like I ever did. Without his condescension and bubbly optimism there is space in Gaskell's mostly lean prose for all the good stuff: children and old people dying one after the other, a legitimate if truncated plot about the labor struggle, and the daily habits of starvation. In the labor piece we witness the absurd pretense at powerlessness on the part of the bosses to prevent starvation, a bold, callous and moralistic lie that we all need to see nenuded in the Trump age.
Also present are a few small turns to the audience for a polemic message as we love so much from Harriet Beecher Stowe, and on the other hand some appeals to the religious view that now seems backward but rings true and honest in Gaskell's voice and in her time. At the end she chickens out and makes things come out easy, with a moralistic upbeat conclusion, but that's to be expected from the era. An excellent book that must not be forgotten! ( )

A bit to dense and slow for me.
Despite that probably something that I'll reread someday and would advice others to read. ( )

Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel is based on a true story: the murder of a mill owner in 1831. Her story is set a few years later and covers not only this true story but also conditions for the working class in general. It sets the stage for the themes she would explore in later books, such as North and South.

I personally found this a slog. Each chapter begins with a song or poem, and the way my copy was formatted made it hard to tell sometimes when the quote ended and the story began. I also found it hard to become invested in the story; I still haven’t reached the murder, even though I started this a month and a half ago (started in late August 2020, and it’s nearly mid-October now). Part of this could be chalked up to pandemic brain and ebook fatigue, so I wouldn’t rule out returning to this someday. But right now it is too much, and certainly not as interesting as Wives and Daughters, which is my favourite Gaskell novel and which I recommend. ( )