A novel that tells of the comfortable pinnacle and miserable base of the Victorian social pyramid. James Barton blames the death of his wife on her beautiful sister, Esther. Before mysteriously vanishing, Esther vows to make a lady of her niece Mary - words which sow the seeds of ambition in the girl. Violently attacked by Manchester mill-owners and the Tory Press as being biased against employers, the novel (1848) was greatly admired by Carlyle and Dickens.