The Royal Exchange Theatre located in St. Ann's Square, Manchester opened its thirtieth anniversary season in 2006 with the world premiere of Rona Munro's two-act dramatic adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel Mary Barton. The play, which ran from September 6 through October 14, was subsequently published in book form (Nick Hern Books, London 2006) with a foreword by Munro, in which she writes.

This edition would not have been possible without the work of numerous Gaskell scholars who have edited editions of Mary Barton.Stephen Gill's 1970 Penguin edition, based on the first edition of the novel, was the first that I read when I was introduced to Gaskell's work as an undergraduate more than thirty years ago. What follows is a list of the seven other significant editions, year of publication,and the base text each used that have been published in the years since: Edgar Wright's 1987 Oxford World's Classic (third edition as base text); Angus Easson's 1993 Ryburn edition (fifth edition as base text); Alan Shelston's 1996 Everyman edition (based on the fifth edition with collations from the other early editions except the fourth);MacDonald Daly's 1996 Penguin edition (third edition as base text);Jennifer Foster's 2000 Broadview edition (fifth edition as base text);Joanne Wilkes's 2005 Pickering & Chatto edition (volume five of the new, definitive ten-volume complete works, fifth edition as base text); and Shirley Foster's 2006 Oxford World Classics edition (fifth edition as base text). Although I consulted each of those editions at various points, I am most indebted to Shirley Foster's, Angus Easson's, MacDonald Daly's, and Edgar Wright's editions, which I mined for much invaluable information.

This work would not have been possible without the assistance of many others. Katie Peel has been extraordinary in her support, from helping with permissions to providing critical responses to all the supporting material. Matthew Mroz assisted with the reproduction of illustrations. Richard Pickering provided information on early dramatic adaptations of the novel. The University of Connecticut Research Council provided assistance with a grant. And the Homer Babbidge Library at the University of Connecticut provided essential assistance in locating source materials.

Acknowledgments

Preface

A Note on the Text

The Text of Mary Barton

Contexts

John Geoffrey Sharps · The Genesis of Mary Barton

LETFERS

Elizabeth Gaskell · From Letters

Thomas Carlyle · Letter to Mrs. Gaskell

  (November 8, 1848)

 Maria Edgeworth · Letter to Miss Holland

  (December 27, 1848)

 Samuel Bamford · To the Authoress of"Mary Barton"

  (March 9, 1849)

CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS

 Henry Fothergill Chorlay · Athenaeum

  (October 21, 1848)

 Manchester Literary Times · From Unsigned Review

  (October 28, 1848)

John Forster · Examiner (November 4, 1848)

 British Quarterly · From Unsigned Review

   (February 1849)

 Prospective Review · From Unsigned Review

   (February 1849)

 Charles Kingsley · Fraser's Magazine (April 1849)

 W. R. Greg · From Edinburgh Review (April 1849)

 Elizabeth Gaskell · Libbie Marsh's Three Eras

 Friedrich Engels · Results of Industrialisation

 Leon M. Faucher · From Manchester in 1844:

   Its Present Condition and Future Prospects

 Anonymous · The Mutual Dependence of

   Men in a Social State

 Dion Boucicault · The Long Strike: A Drama in Four Acts

  ILLUSTRATIONS

Mary and her father.

"'Child, we must be all to one another, now she is gone.'"

"'You won't even say you'll try and like me; will you, Mary?'"

"Ben bustled about with the square bottle of Golden

  Wasser in one of his hands and a small tumbler in

  the other."

"The door opened and in bounded Amy."

"An old-fashioned saying about a pair of gloves came into

  Jem's mind."

"'It's Jem Wilson and his father.'"

"An instant afterwards he lay stretched in the muddy road."

"'O lad, hunger is nothing--nothing!'"

"'What do you want?' she asked wearily."

"'O Jem! Take me home.'"

"'Oh, Mother! Mother, are you really dead?'"

Mary Barton

"'I'm come to say good-bye.'"

"There sat her father still and motionless."

Criticism

Kathleen Tillotson · ["The Gentle Humanities of Earth"]

Raymond Williams · [Structure of Feeling in Mary Barton]

Richard D. Altick · Dion Boucicault Stages Mary Barton

Graham Handley · Mrs. Gaskell's Reading: Some Notes on

  Echoes and Epigraphs in Mary Barton

John Lucas · [Carson's Murder and the Inadequacy of

  Hope in Mary Barton]

John Lucas · [Why We Need Mary Barton]

Rosemarie Bodenheimer · Private Grief and Public Acts

  in Mary Barton

Catherine Gallagher · Causality versus Conscience:

  The Problem of Form in Mary Barton

Patsy Stoneman · [The Feminization of Working-Class

  Men in Mary Barton]

 Hilary M. Schor · [MaternaIAuthority in Mary Barton]

 Deborah Epstein Nord · [Class Antagonism and the Sexual

  Plot in Mary Barton]

Josephine M. Guy · [Morality and Economics in

  Mary Barton]

 Deirdre d'Albertis · [The Streetwalker and Urban

  Observations in Mary Barton]

 Susan Zlotnick · The Curse of Leisure: Unemployment

  in Mary Barton

Jonathan H. Grossman · [Trial, Alibi, and the Novel

  as Witness]

Amy Mae King · Taxonomical Cures: The Politics of

  Natural History and Herbalist Medicine in Elizabeth

  Gaskell's Mary Barton

Liam Corley · The Imperial Addiction of Mary Barton

Elizabeth Gaskell: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography