SOURCE: Wheeler, Michael D. “The Writer as Reader in Mary Barton.” Durham University Journal 36, no. 1 (December 1974): 92-102.

In the following essay, Wheeler investigates the various literary sources that may have provided the inspiration for Gaskell's novel.

Susanna Winkworth was one of many contemporaries who described Elizabeth Gaskell's devoted commitment to her domestic duties: ‘Her books … were only written when all possible domestic and social claims had been satisfied. Not only was she a devoted wife and mother, but her actual household cares were a positive delight to her. She was more proud of her cows and poultry, pigs and vegetables, than of her literary triumphs, and trained a succession of young women into first-rate cooks. Nor did she ever forget the special duties of a minister's wife.’¹ We always think of her as Mrs. Gaskell. However, as Susanna Winkworth noted, the charm of her modest, selfless nature helped...