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  • Published: 24 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141974675
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 512

Mary Barton

A Tale of Manchester Life




The new paperback series: Penguin English Library

With an essay by Stephen Gill.

"Don't think to come over me with th' old tale, that the rich know nothing of the trials of the poor; I say, if they don't know, they ought to know. We're their slaves as long as we can work; we pile up their fortunes with the sweat of our brows, and yet we are to live as separate as if we were in two worlds ... with a great gulf betwixt us"

Mary Barton is beautiful but has been born poor. Her father fights for the rights of his fellow workers, but Mary wants to make a better life for them both. She rashly decides to reject her lover Jem, a struggling engineer, in the hope of marrying the rich mill-owner's son Henry Carson and securing a safe future. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself hopelessly torn between them. She also discovers an unpleasant truth - one that could bring tragedy upon everyone, and threatens to destroy her.

  • Published: 24 October 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141974675
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 512

Other books in the series

Emma
Persuasion
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
On Sparta