I started reading The Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels, which was based on his observations in Manchester during the 1840s. Friedrich Engels was the son of a wealthy, German industrialist, who also had business assets in England. Engels wanted to study the working class in Britain because at the time it was the most industrialized country in the world. His introduction reminded me of history lessons from school. It always seemed to be either the Industrial Revolution or the Tudors when I was at school. Anyway, the rate at which industry grew during those years was astounding, the way Engels reported them. I was reminded just how many textiles we made back then. Friedrich Engels wrote that he spent his time in Manchester talking to factory workers rather than hob-nobbing with the quality.
Since Manchester was Elizabeth Gaskell's city, and that they both sympathized and wrote about working class people, I wondered whether they ever met or read each others books. Gaskell may not have read Engels' book since it was published in Germany and was not translated into English until decades later.