I have just started reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, and it is an extraordinary book. Well, insofar as I’ve only read the first chapter.
In the first chapter, Tressell has his characters discuss what’s wrong with Britain. Mainly it’s to do with foreigners taking jobs and foreign food replacing British food. The protagonist, Owen, maintains that they are wrong and that they don’t understand politics or the way the world is run. They all bundle in on him, telling him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
For a book written in 1910, it sure sounds like 2016.
‘Wot’s the use of talkin’ like that?’ he said; ‘you know very well that the country IS being ruined by foreigners. Just go to a shop to buy something; look round the place an’ you’ll see that more than ’arf the damn stuff comes from abroad. They’re able to sell their goods ’ere because they don’t ’ave to pay no dooty, but they takes care to put ’eavy dooties on our goods to keep ’em out of their countries; and I say it’s about time it was stopped.’
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, avail: https://www.marxists.org/archive/tressell/works/1914/chap01.html
George Orwell praised it, saying it was a book that everyone should read. Writer, Jonah Raskin described it as ‘…a classic of modern British literature…’ It has been adapted for the stage eight times, three times for radio and a BBC series made back in 1967.
And it isn’t all serious, either. Tressell (real name Robert Noonan) had a dry wit that surprises and delights. I rather like the way he’s renamed the newspapers. For instance, the Tory newspaper is called The Obscurer. Nice one.
Another surprise was Mirinda learning to roast salmon tonight.
She wanted to learn so that, when I’m away in Sweden in July, she’ll have another thing in her cooking repertoire. I think she did pretty well.
Top marks.
