Manchester 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.
The most comprehensive paperback edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, text summary and chronology of Elizabeth Gaskell's life and times.
