Industrial novel

The industrial novel is a genre of early Victorian literature. A subclass of the social novel, it portrays the difficult conditions of life of the urban working class during the Industrial Revolution. Many industrial novels featured sympathetic portrayals of Chartists or strikers.

Typical examples of the genre are: [ [http://www.erinoconnor.org/reviews/colby.shtml Erin O'Connor ] ]

* Charles Dickens' "Hard Times" (1854)
* Benjamin Disraeli's "Sybil, or the Two Nations" (1845)
* George Eliot's "Felix Holt" (1866)
* Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" (1854) and "Mary Barton" (1848)
* Charles Kingsley's "Alton Locke" (1849)

A modern take on the industrial novel is provided by David Lodge in "Nice Work" (1988) .

Further reading

*Childers JW. 'Industrial culture and the Victorian novel'. In "The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel" (David D, ed), Cambridge University Press, 2001
*Gallagher, Catherine. (1985). 'The industrial reformation of English fiction : social discourse and narrative form,' 1832-1867. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
*Williams, Raymond. (1958). 'Culture and Society, 1780-1950.' New York, Columbia University Press.

References