Mary Barton

A few spoilers below.

Mary Barton is the story of a young woman living in industrial Manchester. Her mother has died and her brother has starved to death and her father has been laid off and is living in despair over all the things he has lost. Mary herself is learning to be a seamstress and she is loved by two men, one rich and one poor, and she favors the rich one. Until she abruptly does not. And then the rich man is found dead and the poor one accused of his murder.

I found the story deeply melodramatic, with the good very, very good and the bad concerned only with themselves, but I liked how the story highlighted the terrible lives of the working man and woman of the time. The story was compelling though I came to expect that if something could go wrong, it would. The ending felt improbable but satisfying.