All Sorts and Conditions of Men

by Walter Besant, Frederick Barnard (Illustrator), Helen Small (Introduction)

In All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) Besant vividly portrays the poverty and deprivation of London's East End in a story about transformations and crossings of class-boundaries.
Simultaneously a `condition of England' novel, New Woman fiction, romance, comedy, satire and crime story, All Sorts and Conditions of Men has strong roots in the politics of nineteenth-century reform. Determined to use her inherited wealth benevolently, Angela Messenger, a young idealistic
Cambridge graduate, changes her name and takes lodgings in a Stepney boarding-house to observe and gain understanding of the East End. Young aristocrat Harry Le Breton also haunts the area, discovering his origins, and a new sense of kinship. Consistently setting itself against the cheerless
evangelical strain in Victorian philanthropy, All Sorts and Conditions of Men offers a blueprint for the cultural regeneration of Britain's proletariat as Angela and Harry plan a `Palace of Delight' to provide `a little more of the pleasures and graces of life' for the East Enders they have come to
know. Indeed, five years after the book's publication, Besant's `generous and glowing imagination' was praised as the inspiration for the real-life `The People's Palace' on the Mile End Road, and All Sorts and Conditions of Men became that rare thing, a work of fiction which made something
happen.

Genres: Fiction

436 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Sir Walter Besant was a novelist and historian from London. His sister-in-law was Annie Besant. The son of a merchant, he was born in Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire and attended school at St Paul's, Southsea, Stockwell Grammar, London and King's College London. In 1855, he was admitted as a pensioner to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1859 as 18th wrangler. After a year as Mathematical Master at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire and a year at Leamington College, he spent 6 years as professor of mathematics at the Royal College, Mauritius. A breakdown in health compelled him to resign, and he returned to England and settled in London in 1867. He took the duties of Secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund, which he held 1868-85. In 1871, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn.

Reviews

[Edward Janes · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second time reading this book which is one of my absolute favourites. A forgotten classic first published in 1882, it is set amongst the working poor in the East End of London. When millionaire Angela Messenger decides to live and work under another name in the East End to best see how to help the people, she meets Harry, the ward of a lord who wants to find his roots. Together hatch a plan on how to transform the area and the future of its residents.

Comedy, romance, sattire but most importantly a commentary on the working class, poverty and working condition that would itself lead to social reform a few years later.

[Dawn Paris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit wordy and wandering at places, but rather relevant to today's news. Themes of class, political rhetoric, philanthropy, community organization vs. government intervention--and a neat little love story.

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very odd novel. An impossibility in the stark reality of the working conditions of the Victorian period. However, a really wonderful support to the discussion of working conditions, and the philanthropy that was taking place in the period to help elevate the working classes.