The Industrial Muse: A Study of Nineteenth Century British Working-Class Literature

First published in 1974, The Industrial Muse is a study of the literary achievements of the working class. The focus is upon the cultural environment and assumptions of self-educated writers, their literary preoccupations and careers, and the content, form and structure of their writings.

This literature must first be considered from the perspective of the working people who read and wrote it, for it functioned in their lives in a number of important ways. Its character was due in large part...