by Elizabeth Gaskell
This was Elizabeth Gaskell's first book, and is the second book by her which I've read. It's really two books in one - the first, concentrating on John Barton (father of the titular Mary Barton) is a screed about structural inequality and capital versus labor, and the second, a literal courtroom dra...
bookshelves: victorian, autumn-2010, published-1848, play-dramatisation, britain-england, classic Recommended for: BBC7 listeners Read from September 27 to October 22, 2010 0.0% "A cotton weaver's daughter is wooed - and her Aunt goes missing." 09/28/2010 page 2 0.0% "Mary grows up ...
This was Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel and it shows. It's signficantly less assured than her better known works, [b:North and South|156538|North and South|Elizabeth Gaskell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349633381s/156538.jpg|1016482], [b:Cranford|182381|Cranford|Elizabeth Gaskell|http://d.gr-asse...
First sentence: “There are some fields near Manchester, well-known to the inhabitants as ‘Green Heys Fields’, though which runs a public footpath to a little village about two miles distant.”P. 99: “It’s not to be forgotten, or forgiven either, by me or many another; but I canna tell of our down-cas...
Just finished MARY BARTON, by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in 1848 based on events in 1837-42 in Manchester, England. I have the Norton Critical edition (2008), but before I wander through its learned criticism, here are a few thoughts.Wow, what a difference from SHIRLEY. Though both Bronte an...
I have never understood why Elizabeth Gaskell is not better known. She was a contemporary of Dickens and a much better writer. Both HARD TIMES by Dickens and MARY BARTON by Gaskell deal with the terrible plight of the working poor during the 1840s and 1850s. Gaskell's characters are realistically...
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