ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|32 pages

The two traditions, 1820-80

chapter 2|22 pages

New lines and continuing traditions

chapter 3|40 pages

George Gissing

chapter 6|32 pages

Rudyard Kipling and cockney archetypes

chapter 7|34 pages

Arthur Morrison and the tone of violence

chapter 8|24 pages

The Cockney School

chapter 9|23 pages

Industrialism, urbanism and class conflict

chapter 10|23 pages

The phonetic representation of Cockney