Condition of England or Industrial Novels
Learning About British History Through the Fiction of the Age
May 7, 2009
Classic 19th Century novelists such as Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell wrote their famous Condition of England novels with the express intention of informing and educating the British reading public of the scandalous conditions faced by the working classes in Britain.
The Condition of England Novels
The Industrial Revolution in Britain spawned a whole new genre of novels, the so-called Condition of England or Industrial Novel. Reading these can often provide the reader with an insight lacking in textbooks, that of the distinctly personal voice which humanizes historical facts.
19th Century Novelists and Workers Conditions
Novelists have to do their research before writing books which attempt to address contemporary concerns. This can be seen clearly in the work of the nineteenth century novelists who were appalled by the disgraceful conditions often endured by the working classes both at home and at work and reflected their research and observations in their fictional characters and settings.
Charles Dickens and Industrial Conditions
In the novel Hard Times, Dickens' sets out to address explicitly the impact of the industrialisation of Britain. Set within a definite time, the 1840s, Hard Times was written by Dickens as a direct attack on the way in which the break-neck pace of change had forced the British working classes into a state of semi-slavery in the factories and mills.
Charles Dickens Publishes Hard Times in 1854
In January 1854 he carried out research in the Northern English milltown of Preston and much of what he witnessed there ended up on the pages of Hard Times. Since its publication in 1854, the names of Gradgrind and Bounderby have become synonymous with greedy, grasping Capitalism and the cruel impersonalisation wrought by the then popular theories of Utilitarianism.
Elizabeth Gaskell and Social History
Having burst onto the UK literary scene with the publication of her 1848 novel, Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell had already made her name as a novelist. Mary Barton, the story of a young working class girl's struggles, was an instant success, not only because it is a compelling story of love and social injustice, but because it is, 'social history as it should be understood, on the pulses of the people who made it'.
Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton and North and South
The middle class wife of a Unitarian minister living in industrial Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell knew better than most of her class the disgraceful living and working conditions endured by the factory and mill 'hands'. She made the most of her observations and experiences when writing her 1855 tour de force, North and South, which portrayed the relationship between the traditional agricultural South and the newly industrialized North of England. As in Mary Barton, Gaskell's portrayal of the unimaginable conditions endured by the working classes is drawn with such unshrinking detail that it is impossible for the reader to not feel moved.
For anyone interested in the plight of the working classes during the Industrial Revolution, reading about the lives of the characters portrayed in Hard Times, Mary Barton and North and South, although fictional, will allow the reader the reflect upon the hardship of those times. A good quality edition of these novels will provide copious notes to support the story and reading these will assist in gaining a deeper understanding of the historical facts alongside the fictional representation.
Charles Dickens, Hard Times, published by Penguin with notes by David Craig, ISBN 0-14-043042-3
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, published by Penguin with notes by Stephen Gill, ISBN 0-14-043053-9
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, published by Oxford University Press with notes by Angus Easson, ISBN 0-19-281595-4
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