Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel Mary Barton (1848) has scorpions, mermaids, fire, opium, seduction, prostitution, and an assassination. Bam, bam, bam! There’s a thrilling river pursuit sequence and some brilliantly-worked scenes of poverty and starvation.

But this is no North and South. The love story between Mary and Jem felt flat, largely because Jem makes such rare appearances in the novel (until the end). I was rather hoping Mary would have to make the impossible choice between the accused and the actual murderer in the courts, and felt the ending had a few false notes - particularly regarding the murderer’s inability to articulate his motive, and Mr Carson’s undercooked understanding of urban poverty.

Nevertheless, I was often gripped and it was interesting to see key themes from Gaskell’s later works being developed here.

Pirate Connection

The protagonists of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton - Mary and Jem - put me in mind of Daphne du Maurier’s own Mary and Jem from her 1936-novel Jamaica Inn. The two Mary’s are quite alike: driven by adventure and love, headstrong, oppressed by their father figures. They eclipse their men, go on quests, dine with murderers, have fallen aunts, lie to protect family members from the law, and ultimately forsake their hometowns for the unknown.