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Steve Jackson

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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

by Robert Tressell

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Steve Jackson said: " Firstly, I'd like to say this is not an easy read and certainly not for everyone. It has, though, some really strong reasons to recommend it, which I'll come to. To explain first, though, my hesitations. It is, for one thing, very long and also not a Firstly, I'd like to say this is not an easy read and certainly not for everyone. It has, though, some really strong reasons to recommend it, which I'll come to. To explain first, though, my hesitations. It is, for one thing, very long and also not a lot happens. I was pulled in, most of all, by the vividness of the picture of life as lived by an impoverished labouring class in early 20th century England. There's very little storyline, though, and I can imagine some readers would find it tending to be rather too slow.

It's set in the seaside town of Hastings*, here fictionalised as Mugsborough. The story centres on the travails of working life and life in general of a small group of artisan workers employed by a painting and decorating company.

The book gives a fascinating account of the difficulties they faced in this pre-Welfare State era. It's a story such as I've never read anywhere else. The most obvious comparison is Dickens and the way he exposed the iniquities of society. Dickens was, though, writing about early Victorian Britain, some fifty years or so before Tressell's book. What the 'Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' reveals is how working men in the early 1900s were subject to a grossly unfair and exploitative system, which put them in perpetual fear of losing their jobs, sapped them of their vigour and creativity and led to they and their families living in a state of virtual poverty with very little recourse to any assistance including healthcare. From a historical perspective what is remarkable is that he is describing society at a time which might be considered the height of British Imperial power; a time when it's easy to assume that the worst excesses portrayed by Dickens were already consigned to the past.

Tressell is an avowed socialist and this book is, in many ways, a political vehicle for him to reveal the misery and deprivation of the working men, to provide an analysis of the unfairness of the system and to suggest a socialist alternative. The mouthpiece of this viewpoint is, for much of the book, very much the character of Owen, a more skilled workmen than the rest, who probably mirrors Tressell, who did this kind of work himself, quite closely. Owen (Tressell), at times, comes across as rather didactic, even superior in his attitude, but I had no reason to think that we're being presented with a distorted picture of the injustices the working class faced. It's clear that Tressell felt, on one hand, frustrated by the unquestioning enthusiasm his fellow workers had for 'the system'. At the same time, he's very clear of how much their lack of vision is a product of their circumstances. In addition to Owen, a more articulate spokesman is introduced in the later stages of the book in the form of a slightly mysterious character called Barrington.

For many reasons, it is, I would say, at least worth dipping into. Tressell puts us in touch with the very forces that spawned the Labour and Trade union movements in this country and why they were essential in the development of a fairer society. It's easy a hundred years on for us to not even realise how bad things were for so many. Tressell provides us with a very powerful glimpse of what probably the majority had to endure, regardless of the enormous wealth and economic power the country enjoyed. He's also a very very good descriptive writer and some of the scenes he sets are masterly.

*It has to be said that Tressell does try to throw you off the scent here, though. In the postscript he describes it as ‘two hundred miles’ from London, whereas Hastings would not even be one hundred. As far as I remember he never mentions the sea in the book either (Hastings is a seaside town). However it seems to be an established fact that he was living and working in Hastings at the time he wrote the book, doing exactly the same work he describes. The version of the book I bought I was, in fact the ‘Hastings edition’, sponsored by the local council. ...more "

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(page 579 of 590)
— Dec 22, 2015 11:03PM

Dec 22, 2015 11:21PM · see review