SOURCE: Lansbury, Coral. “Mary Barton: The Condition of the Working Class in Manchester.” In Elizabeth Gaskell: The Novel of Social Crisis, pp. 22-50. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1975.

In the following excerpt, Lansbury discusses Gaskell's original version of Mary Barton and the changes she made in response to her publisher's demands.

From its publication in the revolutionary year of 1848, there was controversy and confusion of interpretation over Mary Barton, a confusion that has not been resolved today. Elizabeth Gaskell was never happy with Edward Chapman as either publisher or correspondent. Most writers found that his acknowledged personal charm did not extend to his business arrangements. He was dilatory both in his correspondence and his payments. With Elizabeth Gaskell, the relationship was uncomfortable from the beginning. She had been irritated when Chapman suggested a preface to the novel, relating its events to the revolutions in Europe. She had lived...