Interesting but more ham-fisted than Gaskell's later works
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There are two strong messages in the book, both of which made me very uncomfortable. Firstly, the working classes should put their faith in God rather than trying to bring about social change - particularly through trade unionism. Secondly, whilst the 'masters' should look towards helping their workers and building a relationship of trust, they shouldn't try too hard to feed them if times were bad.
With the exception of Mary and her father John, the characters in the book are pretty much black and white - Jem is good and decent who is allowed a moment's dark thoughts before quickly becoming good and decent again and Henry Carson is a wrong 'un from the start - vain, silly and happy to destroy Mary's honour and character without thinking of the consequences (all of which means that his death seems a little too convenient). Mary herself is shown as a woman happy to flirt without thinking of the consequences and whilst we know why she's happy to encourage Henry Carson (and I particularly liked the role played by her 'friend' Sally who happily acts as intermediary as she's getting paid well), she doesn't realise that he has no intention of marrying her. I did think that she was very much a cliched Victorian heroine - dithering, strong only when it suited the plot and heavily reliant on men. John Barton was far more interesting - his lack of faith in God and misplaced faith that politicians would listen to the will of the working class and try to help contributing to the desperation both of him and the trade unionists, so that you can readily believe why he'd be driven to murder as being the only way of trying to get the masters to listen.
There's a good use of Lancashire dialect throughout the book, which is interesting and doesn't detract from the story (where there are non-obvious dialect words used, the Penguin edition footnotes the same to give a meaning) and there's plenty of dramatic moments - including a fire at a factory, the return of Henry Carson's body to his parents and Mary's dash down the Mersey to stop Jem's alibi witness setting sail for America. However's there's also a lot of sentimentality, including Mary's friend Margaret, who's tragically going blind and Jem's aunt Alice, a good woman who ends up suffering a stroke. All of this means that it won't be a book for everyone and I suspect that it will be of most interest to fans of Gaskell's other works and those interested in social and political conditions of the time.
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Great sense of humanity and sympathy to suffering
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A supreme description of the great suffering of poverty which is sympathic and moving yet with dignity and hope. It is not for the faint-hearted.
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Insightful, but not very entertaining
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In “Mary Barton”, Elizabeth Gaskell describes to us with passionate sentiment, though without great literary style, the hardships that had to be endured by factory workers in Manchester in the 1840s. Although gifted with powerful insight, the author in some places of her narrative fails to arouse emotions in the reader, making the novel rather dull and flat at times. As for the plot, I found it depressingly tragical and ending in an unlikely happy way. To sum up, I wouldn’t recommend “Mary Barton” to someone who reads for pleasure, but at the same time I realise this book might prove useful for study purposes. Cecilia S. Idiart, 14 years old.
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A depressing tale of death and despair
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I am usually a fan of 19th century fiction so was looking forward to reading this book. I struggled through the first part feeling sure that once I had got into it I would start enjoying it. However the unending tale of unrelieved misery did not make for an engrossing read, not helped by the didactic style of the author. Dickens conveys his social message effectively without sacrificing humour and characterisation but Gaskell is short on both. I think this is one 19th century novel that belongs in that century. Doubtless it was an important and shocking book in its time, but for me it has no lasting literary merit as the style is so dull and the characters do not come alive - appropriately enough since so many of them die in the course of the work anyway!
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Hard going
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So much Victorian literature is vivid and riveting, and I had high hopes for this novel. But I found it to be very dry and very hard going. It is like being forced to sit through a long and monotonous sermon. The characters - who seem to include a large number of crusty old men - never come to life.
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