Mary Barton
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Set in Manchester in the 1840s, Mary Barton portrays the consequences of economic and physical hardships on the city's working-class community. In parallel with the novel's interpretation of the relationship between lords and people, the suffering of the poor, and the angry reaction of the workers, there is the story of Mary, the daughter of a factory worker who falls into the violent trap of class conflict, attracting the attention of the son of the mill owner, when brutal murder forces her to resist her true feelings and loyalties.
