Mary Barton in Reading the Classics

Jun 18, 2017 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In the grim industrial city of Manchester, England around the latter part of the decade, of the 1830's, people are actually starving to death, especially the little ones... the poor parents cannot feed... those...Murder follows as naturally as water flows to the lowest level... A love triangle ensues between the amorous competitors , Jem Wilson a working -class engineer and Henry Carson, the son of a wealthy businessman for the affections of the delightful Miss Mary Barton , (she has high ambiti In the grim industrial city of Manchester, England around the latter part of the decade, of the 1830's, people are actually starving to death, especially the little ones... the poor parents cannot feed... those...Murder follows as naturally as water flows to the lowest level... A love triangle ensues between the amorous competitors , Jem Wilson a working -class engineer and Henry Carson, the son of a wealthy businessman for the affections of the delightful Miss Mary Barton , (she has high ambitions) but will not end well. Her father's feelings of great hatred , keeps the secret second man, a secret ... Still the most weak and vulnerable, the children continue to succumb quietly in their small beds, as the mothers and fathers look helplessly , and slowly the shrunken bodies, fade away. Trade brings prosperity but when there is none the opposite arrives... bleakness. Elizabeth Gaskell gives light to the dark and confronts the establishment , who don't want the rays to show the ugly. YET IT EXISTS, nobody cares , parliament kicks the can down the road, since the members have a full stomach, let others interested take the initiative, citizens die everyday, so what is the problem ? This novel about the Barton and Wilson families, drab lives, revealed to the public the suffering of the wretched to a society that did not want to know. Mary Barton the pretty daughter of a radical union organizer, John Barton, who blames the rich bosses for the many deaths, that have occurred ( beloved wife included) , is in the middle of an unending struggle, she must take sides, love or family. As politics rears its head, the truth vanishes too, as is always the custom. If your beliefs are not correct then change the facts...after a while you will not notice the difference, anything of blackness, as the town's air usually is. A splendid book for those who like to visit the not always great past, a joyous experience it isn't to be sure, but a necessary one. Be warned though, the story like other Victorian novels is quite hard going, painful in spots for the casual readers, than again life is the same... ...more

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