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Mary Barton

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

  • Novel
  • Book language: English
  • 420 pages

Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, a Victorian social novel set in Manchester, follows the Barton family amid tensions between mill workers and owners. It depicts working-class poverty and class conflict, with elements of mystery and crime. Worth listening for its vivid portrait of an industrial city and Mary's personal story.

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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

E-text prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset,

and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

HTML version prepared by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.

Editorial Note:

Mary Barton, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's first novel, was first published anonymously in 1848 by Chapman and Hall.

MARY BARTON:

A TALE OF MANCHESTER LIFE.

by

ELIZABETH GASKELL

"'How knowest thou,' may the distressed Novelwright exclaim, 'that I, here where I sit, am the

Foolishest of existing mortals; that this my Long-ear of a fictitious Biography shall not find one and the other, into whose still longer ears it may be the means, under

Providence, of instilling somewhat?' We answer,

'None knows, none can certainly know: therefore,

write on, worthy Brother, even as thou canst, even as it is given thee.'"

CARLYLE.

CONTENTS

PREFACE.

I.   A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

II.   A MANCHESTER TEA-PARTY.

III.   JOHN BARTON'S GREAT TROUBLE.

IV.   OLD ALICE'S HISTORY.

V.   THE MILL ON FIRE—JEM WILSON TO THE RESCUE.

VI.   POVERTY AND DEATH.

VII.   JEM WILSON'S REPULSE.

VIII.   MARGARET'S DEBUT AS A PUBLIC SINGER.

IX.   BARTON'S LONDON EXPERIENCES.

X.   RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL.

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Contents

  1. MARY BARTON:
  2. A TALE OF MANCHESTER LIFE.
  3. ELIZABETH GASKELL
  4. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

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