Kay's Bookshelf

Predictably enough, I didn’t know what to make of Mary at first. Almost as soon as the reader gets to know her she is in a rich guy’s arms, vainly enjoying his attentions and mostly disregarding the customs of the day. And yet, bit by bit, her true motives are uncovered: she indeed wants to be rich, but mostly for her father’s sake. Perhaps an understandable enough reason given the poverty all around her, and yet I couldn’t honestly say I liked her. But Mary’s best moments are after Jem proposed, after she realized the true owner of her heart. She never wavers in her decision of no longer leading Mr. Henry (the rich guy) along, and she starts acting like one would expect of a honest girl in that time.

Jem on the other hand is a bit one-faceted, as he is, all throughout the book, as perfect and unwavering as he could be. He is so good I couldn’t help liking him (especially as he had every quality to be wanted in a guy back then), and yet I cannot help but wonder whether I would have liked him better with at least a tiny flaw of his own. (Actually, to be honest I probably did like him better perfect as he was, but he would have been a lot more believable a wee bit flawed). My other favorite characters were Margaret, a friend of Mary’s (with very straight ethics and with a heart of gold) and her grandfather Job Leigh (whose sadness on losing his daughter and joy on discovering he had a granddaughter make one particular scene one of my very favorites in the whole book).

This is the first book of Gaskell’s and at times it shows. For example, it started off quite slow and I had a bit of a hard time getting into it. And yet, once I got to know all the characters and their conflicts, I was hooked and I couldn’t read fast enough. Unfortunately it slows down again in the end, after the murder trial (yes, there’s going to be a murder too), with a section that is more moralizing than anything else, but were I to draw the line I had a great time reading and the good parts compensated the slow ones by far.

Reading it was like reading two books actually: a classical romance, with a love triangle, strong feelings and unrequited love, and a murder mystery, albeit a bit predictable, very enjoyable because of the emotional involvement the reader has with the characters by the time the murder is introduced (a very skilful move of the author’s in my opinion, to get us care for the characters first then put them through such trials). The book is also, without a doubt, historical fiction, as the author, seemingly very interested in the issues of the time, has dedicated many pages to the conflict between factory-workers and factory owners (a central issue of the times), and also described in minute detail the lives of the former, the way they lived and the way they and theirs have been affected by the events. The poverty and the desperation of the people left without a way to feed their family are so intensely written they feel almost tangible at times, offering the reader perhaps a new insight in the events (for example we very rarely, if at all, stop to think that industrialization back then, while a sign of progress, has been very unkind to a certain group of people, whose work was deemed no longer necessary and who were left to starve, or “clemming”, as the author puts it).

A quote, describing London as seen by John Barton:

They’re sadly puzzled how to build houses though in London; there’d be an opening for a good steady master builder there, as know’d his business. For yo see the houses are many on ‘em built without any proper shape for a body to live in; some on ‘em they’ve after thought would fall down, so they’ve stuck great ugly pillars out before ‘em. And some on ‘em (we thought they must be th’ tailors’ sign) had getten stone men and women as wanted clothes stuck on ‘em.

What I liked most: The author seems to have put some effort into describing as accurately as possible the strained relations between the masters (the factory owners) and the hands (the members of the Traders Union). Each side has its reasons analysed as objectively as possible, and each side’s weak points are exposed. I have very much liked this approach, both because I have learned a thing or two from it (knowing very little about 19th century Manchester), and also because it made it easy for me to relate to both sides (since they both were right in their own way) and it made me became all the more intensely involved in “what happens next”.

What I liked least: Almost everything that came after the trial. The moralizing bit where “the master” (Mr. Carson) meets “the worker” (John Barton) and they sort of talk their differences away was a bit too much for me (and I was quite sad to see that since I had delighted in the way the master/worker topic was treated thus far).

I did like the “happily ever after” finale though (not a spoiler, doesn’t everyone expect such an ending in a classic book?)

Recommend it to? I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the classics. To fans of historical fiction too as it’s an interesting glimpse at the life of that place and time.

I read this book for The Classics Circuit – yay! Interested in more Gaskell reviews? Click here for the full schedule of the tour.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Popularity: 22% [?]