Mary Barton

A Tale of Manchester Life

Elizabeth Gaskell

• Publisher: Aeneas Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9785501796157
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A Manchester mill-worker's daughter, a murdered master's son and a father driven into the Chartist movement by hunger. Gaskell wrote it after her own baby died, to have something to do, and the mill-owners of Manchester never forgave her for it. It was among the first English novels to take the industrial poor seriously as people. Fifty-nine plates drawn from Fildes and Millais and their peers, spanning 1800 to 1927, gather the faces of the poor, the sick and the overlooked that Gaskell was among the first to set at the centre of an English novel.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Mary Barton
• Preface.
• Chapter I. A Mysterious Disappearance.
• Chapter II. A Manchester Tea-Party.
• Chapter III. John Barton’s Great Trouble.
• Chapter IV. Old Alice’s History.
• Chapter V. The Mill on Fire—Jem Wilson to the Rescue.
• Chapter VI. Poverty and Death.
• Chapter VII. Jem Wilson’s Repulse.
• Chapter VIII. Margaret’s Debut as a Public Singer.
• Chapter IX. Barton’s London Experiences.
• Chapter X. Return of the Prodigal.
• Chapter XI. Mr. Carson’s Intentions Revealed.
• Chapter XII. Old Alice’s Bairn.
• Chapter XIII. A Traveller’s Tales.
• Chapter XIV. Jem’s Interview with Poor Esther.
• Chapter XV. A Violent Meeting Between the Rivals.
• Chapter XVI. Meeting Between Masters and Workmen.
• Chapter XVII. Barton’s Night-Errand.
• Chapter XVIII. Murder.
• Chapter XIX. Jem Wilson Arrested on Suspicion.
• Chapter XX. Mary’s Dream—And the Awakening.
• Chapter XXI. Esther’s Motive in Seeking Mary.
• Chapter XXII. Mary’s Efforts to Prove an Alibi.
• Chapter XXIII. The Sub-Poena.
• Chapter XXIV. With the Dying.
• Chapter XXV. Mrs. Wilson’s Determination.
• Chapter XXVI. The Journey to Liverpool.
• Chapter XXVII. In the Liverpool Docks.
• Chapter XXVIII. “John Cropper, Ahoy!”
• Chapter XXIX. A True Bill Against Jem.
• Chapter XXX. Job Legh’s Deception.
• Chapter XXXI. How Mary Passed the Night.
• Chapter XXXII. The Trial and Verdict—“Not Guilty.”
• Chapter XXXIII. Requiescat in Pace.
• Chapter XXXIV. The Return Home.
• Chapter XXXV. “Forgive Us Our Trespasses.”
• Chapter XXXVI. Jem’s Interview with Mr. Duncombe.
• Chapter XXXVII. Details Connected with the Murder.
• Chapter XXXVIII. Conclusion.
• About the Author