Skip to content

Mary Barton (Penguin Classics)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Mary Barton (Penguin Classics) Paperback - 1997

by Elizabeth Gaskell

  • Used

The plot turns on Mary's romantic choice between the son of a rich industrialist and a working-class lover. The class-divide and the widening gap between rich and poor are central themes in a novel originally named after Mary Barton's father, John Barton.

Description

Penguin Classics. Used - Good. Ships from UK in 48 hours or less (usually same day). Your purchase helps support Sri Lankan Children's Charity 'The Rainbow Centre'. Ex-library, so some stamps and wear, but in good overall condition. 100% money back guarantee. We are a world class secondhand bookstore based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom and specialize in high quality textbooks across an enormous variety of subjects. We aim to provide a vast range of textbooks, rare and collectible books at a great price. Our donations to The Rainbow Centre have helped provide an education and a safe haven to hundreds of children who live in appalling conditions. We provide a 100% money back guarantee and are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest standards of service in the bookselling industry.
Used - Good
NZ$6.83
NZ$18.82 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 14 to 21 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Phatpocket Limited (Essex, United Kingdom)
The BIBLIO Guarantee | Ask Seller a Question

About Phatpocket Limited Essex, United Kingdom

Specializing in: A-Level Textbooks, Gcse Textbooks, General Textbooks, University Textbooks
Biblio member since 2006
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Phatpocket Limited is a world class secondhand bookstore located in the Hertfordshire countryside in the United Kingdom. We specialize in textbooks across an enormous variety of subjects. We aim to provide a low cost source of high quality textbooks to the academic community. We also have a sizable collection of rare and collectible books.

We are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest standard of customer service in the bookselling business.

Terms of Sale:

Books are usually shipped in 48 hours or less. All of our books have a 14 day no hassle money back guarantee unless stated otherwise in the book's description. Item must be returned in the exact same condition that it was received. Through our work with The Rainbow Centre and other Charity Partners, we have already given hundreds of young people in Sri Lanka and Africa the vital chance to get an education.

Browse books from Phatpocket Limited

Details

  • Title Mary Barton (Penguin Classics)
  • Author Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition International Ed
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 464
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Classics, NEW YORK
  • Date 1997-04-01
  • Features Bibliography
  • Bookseller's Inventory # Z1-I-006-01855
  • ISBN 9780140434644 / 014043464X
  • Weight 0.71 lbs (0.32 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.78 x 5.14 x 0.85 in (19.76 x 13.06 x 2.16 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 16th Century
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Domestic fiction, Trials (Murder)
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 98107431
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Summary

‘O Jem, her father won’t listen to me, and it’s you must save Mary! You’re like a brother to her’

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 men. Through Mary’s dilemma, and the moving portrayal of her father, the embittered and courageous activist John Barton, Mary Barton (1848) powerfully dramatizes the class divides of the ‘hungry forties’ as personal tragedy. In its social and political setting, it looks towards Elizabeth Gaskell’s great novels of the industrial revolution, in particular North and South.

In his introduction Maconald Daly discusses Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel as a pioneering book that made public the great division between rich and poor – a theme that inspired much of her finest work.

From the publisher

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was born in London in 1810, but she spent her formative years in Cheshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and the north of England. In 1832 she married the Reverend William Gaskell, who became well known as the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Manchester’s Cross Street. As well as leading a busy domestic life as minister’s wife and mother of four daughters, she worked among the poor, traveled frequently and wrote. Mary Barton (1848) was her first success.

Two years later she began writing for Dickens’s magazine, Household Words, to which she contributed fiction for the next thirteen years, notably a further industrial novel, North and South (1855). In 1850 she met and secured the friendship of Charlotte Brontë. After Charlotte’s death in March 1855, Patrick Brontë chose his daughter’s friend and fellow-novelist to write The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857), a probing and sympathetic account, that has attained classic stature. Elizabeth Gaskell’s position as a clergyman’s wife and as a successful writer introduced her to a wide circle of friends, both from the professional world of Manchester and from the larger literary world. Her output was substantial and completely professional. Dickens discovered her resilient strength of character when trying to impose his views on her as editor of Household Words. She proved that she was not to be bullied, even by such a strong-willed man.

Her later works, Sylvia’s Lovers (1863), Cousin Phillis (1864) and Wives and Daughters (1866) reveal that she was continuing to develop her writing in new literary directions. Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly in November 1865.

From the rear cover

The plot turns on Mary's romantic choice between Henry Carson, the son of a rich industrialist, and her working class lover Jem Wilson, and the rivalries between them. The class-divide and the widening gap between rich and poor are central themes in a novel originally named after Mary's father, John Barton.

Categories

Media reviews

"The revolution urged by Mary Barton is a revolution in the emotional and mental dispositions of individuals towards each other … a thoroughly idealist enterprise."
—Macdonald Daly

About the author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was born in London in 1810, but she spent her formative years in Cheshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and the north of England. In 1832 she married the Reverend William Gaskell, who became well known as the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Manchester's Cross Street. As well as leading a busy domestic life as minister's wife and mother of four daughters, she worked among the poor, traveled frequently and wrote. Mary Barton (1848) was her first success.

Two years later she began writing for Dickens's magazine, Household Words, to which she contributed fiction for the next thirteen years, notably a further industrial novel, North and South (1855). In 1850 she met and secured the friendship of Charlotte Bront. After Charlotte's death in March 1855, Patrick Bront chose his daughter's friend and fellow-novelist to write The Life of Charlotte Bront (1857), a probing and sympathetic account, that has attained classic stature. Elizabeth Gaskell's position as a clergyman's wife and as a successful writer introduced her to a wide circle of friends, both from the professional world of Manchester and from the larger literary world. Her output was substantial and completely professional. Dickens discovered her resilient strength of character when trying to impose his views on her as editor of Household Words. She proved that she was not to be bullied, even by such a strong-willed man.

Her later works, Sylvia's Lovers (1863), Cousin Phillis (1864) and Wives and Daughters (1866) reveal that she was continuing to develop her writing in new literary directions. Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly in November 1865.

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.