ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class.

Detailed explanation-2: -Gaskell’s first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865).

Detailed explanation-3: -Subtitled ‘A Tale of Manchester Life’, Elizabeth Gaskell’s (1810-1865) first novel (published anonymously in 1848) is classed as a ‘Condition of England’ work. It conveys contemporary concerns about the destructive effects of industrialisation.

Detailed explanation-4: -It is the story of a working-class family in which the father, John Barton, lapses into bitter class hatred during a cyclic depression and carries out a retaliatory murder at the behest of his trade union.

Detailed explanation-5: -Elizabeth wrote many vivid and warm hearted short stories and novellas, of which the finest is said to be Cousin Phillis (1863). Her other full-length novels were Cranford (1853) Ruth (1853) North and South (1855) Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) and finally Wives and Daughters (1866), which was never finished.