The Working-Classes in Victorian Fiction
Preview
Book Description
First published in 1971. The book examines the presentation of the urban and industrial working classes in Victorian fiction. It considers the different types of working men and women who appear in fiction, the environments they are shown to inhabit, and the use of phonetics to indicate the sound of working class voices. Evidence is drawn from a wide range of major and minor fiction, and new light is cast on Dickens, Mrs Gaskell, Charles Kingsley, George Gissing, Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Morrison. This book would be of interest to students of literature, sociology and history.
Table of Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; 1 The two traditions, 1820-80 2 New lines and continuing traditions 3 George Gissing 4 Walter Besant and the ‘discovery’ of the East End 5 French naturalism and English working-class fiction 6 Rudyard Kipling and cockney archetypes 7 Arthur Morrison and the tone of violence 8 The Cockney School 9 Industrialism, urbanism and class conflict 10 The phonetic representation of Cockney; Notes; Bibliography; Index