Mary Barton, particularly in its early chapters, is a moving response to the suffering of the industrial worker in the England of the 1840’s. What is most impressive about the book is the intense and painstaking effort made by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, to convey the experience of everyday life in working-class homes. Her method is partly documentary in nature: the novel includes such features as a carefully annotated reproduction of dialect, the exact details of food prices in an account of a tea party, an itemized description of the furniture of the Bartons living room, and a transcription (again annotated) of the ballad "The Oldham Weaver". The interest of this record is considerable, even though the method has a slightly distancing effect.
As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could hardly help approaching working-class life as an outside observer and a reporter, and the reader
A. Uncritical enthusiasm
B. Unresolved ambivalence
C. Qualified approval
D. Mild irritation
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