In hungry 1840s Manchester, the mill hand John Barton watches his fellow workers starve while the masters prosper, and turns to trade unionism and Chartist politics in his bitterness. His pretty daughter Mary is courted both by Jem Wilson, a steady young engineer, and by Harry Carson, the mill-owner’s son, and a killing on a dark street soon puts a life on trial.
Gaskell’s first novel, published anonymously in 1848, and one of the founding works of the Victorian industrial novel. Download the free EPUB.