Mary Barton (1848)

Give this book to Jane Austen fans to radicalize them.

I've gone ahead and tagged this with my "manners" tag, but somewhat hesitantly. While Gaskell's North and South has a brilliant false start as an Austen-esque novel of manners, Mary Barton is much more dour and raw from the novel's opening. It has a lot to say about the social world of Manchester, but even more about the bodily, financial, and spiritual realities and struggles of that world. The idea of living in a novel of manners would be an unattainable luxury to our main characters, a kind of frivolous life available only to the masters-- indeed, at one point near the middle of the novel a peek in at the Carson sisters chatting about society and tea feels more like a scene from Bong Joon-ho's Parasite than Austen's Emma, as the reader knows the acute poverty and suffering of the workers in the city that surrounds them.

It's interesting that Elizabeth Gaskell wrote Mary Barton first, and North and South later. Admittedly, N&S does intermingle the romance and realism aspects more evenly than Mary Barton, and reads like a more stylistically mature book (Mary Barton's switch halfway through to a focus on crime and courtroom drama can feel a bit odd). But it is strange to me that after the time Gaskell spends in Mary Barton focusing closely on John Barton and his thoughts and inner life (he was originally intended to be the titular character!), she would hold his counterpart in N&S, Nicholas Higgins, at a comparative arm's length. And it is instead John Thornton, the evolution of Harry/John Carson, who gets a closer eye and greater sympathy. Personally, I have little interest in the plights of the masters over the men. And despite the tragedy of Bessy's death, N&S seems to me to blunt the abject despair and rage created by poverty in Manchester. I don't know. It's clear the books share the same concerns, and the fact that they also share many very similar character archetypes and specific interpersonal and societal events, makes them easy to compare, whether fruitfully or not.

Something I'd like to think and read more about is the portrayal in Mary Barton of how gender and family roles are broken down and subverted by strife and poverty. John Barton and George Wilson help tend to their own children as infants, and also become temporary homemakers and carers during the extremity of the Davenport family's troubles. Job Legh's story of his long trip home from London with the baby Margaret is also very concerned with this theme, as he and Margaret's other grandfather must of necessity fill the place of a mother to her. There's definitely a lot of interesting stuff there. Later, the contrast between how Barton feels when he must be supported by his daughter's income, as opposed to Jane Wilson being supported by her son, show in stark contrast. The roles of parent, mother, father, and child are examined and tested throughout the novel. This comes up in N&S, too, with Higgins and the Boucher children.

Juliet Stevenson's narration was very good. She excelled particularly at making Sally Leadbitter the most infuriating character to ever exist, haha. ( )

The first 200 pages of this book are dark, very dark. The people are caught in the center of the early days of the industrial revolution in the city in the center of those changes - Manchester. The downside of the unbridled capitalist factories was chewing the people to pieces and this story describes it all. The nascent unions, the death and despair, the poverty the hunger the caste system or rather class system now moving to manufacturing rather than land ownership. Unlike Charles Dickens who described some of the same his stories always had some hope of redemption. That's not here. I had just about given up on finishing this book, too much dark for me. And then it changed dramatically for the remaining 250+ pages.

One of the characters is murdered. Mary and the one she really loves, Jem, are pretty sure they know who did it but they aren't talking to each other as Mary has rebuffed Jem and not been able to retract it yet. But everyone else believes that Jem was guilty and there's lots of circumstantial evidence pointing to him. The person killed was one of the masters and his father is determined to have Jem hung within a week or so. Everyone is convinced it's a "slam dunk". A policeman had seen Jem threaten the murdered man just a day or so before. The story is now can Mary find a missing man who can supply an alibi which will free Jem and can Mary let Jem know how she really feels.
This is a real cliff hanger but there's a catch, if Jem gets off who is the real murderer? Freeing Jem only heightens the likelihood the person that both Mary and Jem want to protect will be found out. I won't spoil the story but all does get resolved. Religion plays a major role. These are pious if not church going people.

The second part of the book really redeems the rest. I recommend skimming much of the first half. And some suspension of disbelief is definitely required. ( )

Brilliant, heartbreaking depiction of the life of the working class of Manchester in the bad times ...
So appalling that this was true. Wonder if the "masters"were influenced by this book....loses that spirit after the murder,rather changed,but still very readable.So many characters die,but that was true to life,apart from the last two were it seemed a bit too of a convenience...but I begin to nit pick....I cry buckets over Mrs Gaskills books,and they are full of heart and sympathy. ( )

Life for the Victorian poor and a murder to solve. ( )

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'! ( )