The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong: The Factory Boy: Nonsuch Classics - Couverture souple

Trollope, Fanny

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1845882148 ISBN 13 : 9781845882143

Editeur : Nonsuch Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

The first 'industrial' novel to appear in Britain, Michael Armstrong, is unforgiving exploration of nineteenth-century child labour. First published in 1840, it tells the story of Sir Matthew Dowling, a wealthy businessman who adopts a young factory boy, Michael. He uses the child to demonstrate his willingness to help the poor, but, quickly tiring of him, sends him to an establishment for unwanted pauper children. The young Michael escapes, and a series of dangerous adventures follows. Underpinning this story is the message that individual philanthropy was incapable of solving the wider social ills that grew from nineteenth-century industrialisation, a message which solicited much contemporary criticism for the author, who was ridiculed for writing about the 'vulgar' and 'low-bred'. Today, however, this is a novel which is celebrated for its pioneering attack upon the social problems that plagued the era in which Trollope lived, as well as being regarded as one of the finest examples of the literary achievements of this remarkable woman.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Stack Annex PREFACE. WHEN the author of Michael Armstrong first determined on attempting to draw the attention of her countrymen to the fearful evils inherent in the Factory System, as carried out in our manufacturing towns, she intended to divide her work into two portions, which should present the same subject under two different phases. It was her intention in the first of these to drag into the light of day, and place before the eyes of Englishmen, the hideous mass of injustice and suffering to which thousands of infant labourers are subjected, who toil in our monster spinning-mills. In the second, she proposed that the hero of her tale, having lived through his toil-worn boyhood, should have been seen embarked in those perfectly constitutional struggles for the amelioration of the sufferings of his class, in which many of the more enlightened operatives have been for some years engaged. The first division of the subject has been some time in the readers hands. The true but most painful picture has been drawn faithfully and conscientiously. Of course voices have been raised to deny loudly the truth of all the authors statements, and to assert the whole to be a mere tissue of invention and falsehood. The same charges have been made against her upon another occasion, and she has lived to see the truth of her statements, so impugned, universally admitted. She awaits with perfect confidence the time when similar justice shall be rendered to these pages. But with respect to that division of the subject which it was intended to bring forward in the latter part of her work, the authors views have undergone very considerable change.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books'

Présentation de l'éditeur

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Nonsuch Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2007
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1845882148
• ISBN 13: 9781845882143
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible