"of labour relations and their impact on well-meaning mill owners and her conflicted relationship with John Thornton. Gaskell based her depiction of Milton on Manchester, where she lived as the wife of a Unitarian minister. ""North and South"" originally appeared in 20 weekly episodes from September 1854 to January 1855 in ""Household Words"", edited by Charles Dickens. During this period Dickens dealt with the same theme in Hard Times (also a social novel), which was published in the same magazine from April to August 1854 (Chapman, 1999, p. 26; Ingham, 1995, p. xii–xiii). ""Hard Times"", which shows Manchester (the satirical"
"sister Louisa. He works in Bounderby's bank (which he later robs), and turns to gambling and drinking. Louisa never ceases to adore Tom, and she aids Sissy and Mr. Gradgrind in saving her brother from arrest. Stephen Blackpool is a worker at one of Bounderby's mills. He has a drunken wife who no longer lives with him but who appears from time to time. He forms a close bond with Rachael, a co-worker, whom he wishes to marry. After a dispute with Bounderby, he is dismissed from his work at the Coketown mills and, shunned by his former fellow workers,"
"Claypool Miner From her simple farm life in Vermont, Joanna bravely joins the growing number of girls working in the textile mills in 1836. With her she carries the painful memory of Jed, a young man who has left her, loving the sea more than her loves her. In the Lowell, Massachusetts mill Joanna is horrified to find the work both grueling and dangerous. Even a romance with the mill owner's roguish nephew, Theo, can’t keep the daily work from becoming terrifying drudgery. To strike with the other mill women seems Joanna's only way out of a job that threatens"
"that he is on a quest 'to feast on turtle soup and venison, served with a golden spoon.' All ""superintendents"" of the novel are undone in one way or another. Dickens portrays the wealthy in this novel as being morally corrupt. Bounderby has no moral scruples, and, for example, fires Blackpool ""for a novelty"". He also conducts himself without any shred of decency, frequently losing his temper. He is cynically false about his childhood. Harthouse, a leisured gent, is compared to an ""iceberg"" who will cause a wreck unwittingly, due to him being ""not a moral sort of fellow"", as"
"a factory worker, childhood friend of Blackpool's drunken and often absent wife, and becomes the literary tool for bringing the two parallel story lines together at the brink of Hell's Shaft in the final book. Mrs. Sparsit – is a widow who has fallen on hard times. She is employed by Bounderby, and is jealous when he marries Louisa, delighting in the belief that Louisa is later about to elope with James Harthouse. Her machinations are unsuccessful and she is ultimately sacked by Bounderby. James Harthouse – is an indolent, languid, upper-class gentleman, who attempts to woo Louisa. Mrs. Gradgrind"
"that of the iron mills. It is described as a polluted and oppressive village, inhabited by laborers, mostly “masses of men, with dull, besotted faces bent to the ground, sharpened here and there by pain or cunning; skin and muscle and flesh begrimed with smoke and ashes”. The novella's protagonist is Hugh Wolfe, an iron mill laborer who possesses artistic talent and a spiritual desire for higher forms of pleasure and fulfillment. Despite the hopefulness of Wolfe’s artistic drive, he becomes the story's tragic hero, as his yearning for a better life leads to his imprisonment and ultimate death. Though"
"1840: ""There will be a kind of Ballad on a Blacksmith in the next Knickerbocker, which you may consider, if you please, as a song in praise of your ancestors at Newbury."" The actual village blacksmith in the poem, however, was a Cambridge resident named Dexter Pratt, a neighbor of Longfellow's. Pratt's house is still standing at 54 Brattle Street in Cambridge. Several other blacksmiths have been posited as inspirations for the character in the poem, including ""The Learned Blacksmith"" Elihu Burritt, to whom Longfellow once offered a scholarship to attend Harvard College. Several people, both in the United States"
"play suppressed. This play was the root of the argument in which Jonson killed Gabriel Spencer in 1598, at Hoxton fields. ""Eastward Hoe"" (1605) was equally scandalous, and resulted in the arrest of the playwrights. Charles Dickens (1812–70), throughout his work, draws extensively on his experiences of poverty in London. His godfather had a sail making business in Limehouse, and he based the ""Six Jolly Fellowship Porters"" in ""Our Mutual Friend"" (1864–65) on a public house still standing there. The Red Bull, a now demolished inn situated in Whitechapel, features in his ""Pickwick Papers"". On leaving it Sam Weller makes"
"a job as a result in 1827. One of the lodgers was a young lawyer called Edward Blackmore, who was impressed by the youngster and employed him as a solicitor’s clerk at Ellis & Blackmore in Grays Inn at the age of 15 (for more than twice the pay of the dreaded blacking factory job). It was in Berners Street that, as a boy, Dickens' saw a wandering woman, upon whom the character Miss Havisham from Great Expectations was clearly based. Dickens described her as ""a conceited old creature, cold and formal in manner"" who was ""dressed entirely in white"
"that Tom persuaded Louisa to marry Bounderby to make his own life easier. At a crowded union meeting, the agitator Slackridge accuses Stephen Blackpool of treachery because he will not join the union, and Stephen learns he is to be 'sent to Coventry' - shunned by all his fellow workers. Summoned by Bounderby, he is asked what the men are complaining of; and when Stephen tries to explain, Bounderby accuses Stephen of being a troublemaker and sacks him. Later Louisa and Tom visit Stephen, expressing regret, and Louisa gives him some money. Privately, Tom tells him to wait outside the"
"On Sundays—with his sister Frances, free from her studies at the Royal Academy of Music—he spent the day at the Marshalsea. Dickens later used the prison as a setting in ""Little Dorrit"". To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often harsh working conditions made a lasting impression on Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays,"
"lead a better life without him. At this point members of the circus appear, led by their manager, Mr. Sleary. Mr. Gradgrind gives Sissy a choice: to return to the circus and forfeit her education, or to continue her education and work for Mrs. Gradgrind, never returning to the circus. Sissy accepts the latter, hoping to be reunited with her father. At the Gradgrind house, Tom and Louisa are discontented by their education. Amongst the mill workers, known as ""hands"", is a ""man of perfect integrity"" named Stephen Blackpool, called ""Old Stephen"": another of the story's protagonists. When introduced, he"
"The Village Blacksmith ""The Village Blacksmith"" is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in 1840. The poem describes a local blacksmith and his daily life. The blacksmith serves as a role model who balances his job with the role he plays with his family and community. Years after its publication, a tree mentioned in the poem was cut down and part of it was made into an armchair which was then presented to Longfellow by local schoolchildren. The poem is about a local blacksmith. Noted as being strong, he works by the sweat of his brow and does"
"he was orphaned and brought up by his grandmother who taught him how to read and write. By the age of nine, he was working as an errand boy and by the age of eleven, he was working at a spinning mill. He was able to obtain some books by authors such as Charles Dickens, Robert Burns and William Shakespeare, but his education suffered as he had to provide income for the family. By the age of fifteen, he had left Ireland for Glasgow, where he found employment at a brass foundry, but left for the Mines of Larkhall; and"
"The Blackhouse The Blackhouse is the first novel of The Lewis Trilogy by the Scottish writer Peter May. A suspense thriller, the action takes place mostly on the remote and weather-beaten Isle of Lewis off the coast of northern Scotland. The protagonist, Detective Inspector Finlay Macleod (known as Fin), a native of the island, is sent from his Edinburgh police station to investigate the murder of a man who, it transpires, was the bully at Fin’s school. The ""modus operandi"" of the crime resembles a murder that Fin recently investigated in Edinburgh, so there is the possibility of a common"
"and the plight of the poor and oppressed. His most important works include ""Oliver Twist"" (1837–39), ""Nicholas Nickleby"" (183839)"", A Christmas Carol"" (1843), ""Dombey and Son"" (1846–48), ""David Copperfield"" (184950), ""Bleak House"" (185253), ""Little Dorrit"" (185557), ""A Tale of Two Cities"" (1859), and ""Great Expectations"" (186061). There is a gradual trend in his fiction towards darker themes which mirrors a tendency in much of the writing of the 19th century. William Thackeray was Dickens' great rival in the first half of Queen Victoria's reign. With a similar style but a slightly more detached, acerbic and barbed satirical view of his"
"poor were expected to contribute to their family income. In 19th-century Great Britain, one-third of poor families were without a breadwinner, as a result of death or abandonment, obliging many children to work from a young age. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children. A high number of children also worked as prostitutes. The author Charles Dickens worked at the age of 12 in a blacking factory, with his family in debtor's prison. Child wages were often low; as little as 10–20% of an adult male's wage. Karl"
"many. There was a series of Parliamentary enquiries into the working conditions of children. ""Their reports shocked writers Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Dickens."" The latter describes exploited child workers and physical and emotional abuse in several novels, most memorably in ""Oliver Twist"", and in ""David Copperfield"". Part of the novel was based loosely on Dickens’s own experiences of starting work at Warren’s Blacking factory at the age of 12 following his father’s imprisonment for debt. Such depictions eventually led to legislative reform. Like most of Charles Dickens's novels, ""David Copperfield"" was published in 19 monthly one-shilling instalments, containing 32 pages"
"Black Sheep (Hill novel) Black Sheep, is a novella by English author Susan Hill, published in 2013 by Chatto & Windus. The story is set in a bleak coal-mining village and centres around brother and sister Ted and Rose Howker. It follows their growth from childhood into adulthood and their attempts to break free from the drudgery of their existence. Ted through heading out of the valley to work on a sheep-farm, and Rose through marriage to the pit-manager's son. But neither is able to truly escape and their choices lead to tragedy... In an interview with ""The Guardian"" Hill"
"Ben's intricate plot to kill her, destroy the mill, become the beneficiary of her life insurance, and take sole ownership of the land on which the mill sits, which he intends to turn into a luxury country club. Ben is depicted as both extremely intelligent and mercilessly cutthroat. He acts as a contrast to the simple people of Twin Peaks—while he lacks their folk wisdom, he is nonetheless extremely intelligent, worldly, and well read, capable of quoting Shakespearean sonnets on cue. His usual attire further serves to distance him from the town—while the majority of the populace of Twin Peaks"
"believed to be based upon Maria Beadnell, whom Dickens loved in his early youth. David's friend since boyhood and his second wife Agnes Wickfield, the real heroine of the novel, is based on Dickens' sisters-in-law Mary and Georgina Hogarth; both of whom were very close to Dickens. Dickens keenly felt his deprived education during his time at the blacking factory, and according to the authoritative biography by his lifelong friend and literary advisor John Forster, it was from these times that he drew David's working period. However, there are many differences in the lives of the two. Unlike Dickens, David"
"Peter Bowker Peter Bowker (born 1958) is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the television serials ""Blackpool"" (2004), a musical drama about a shady casino owner; ""Occupation"" (2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour of duty in Iraq; and ""Desperate Romantics"" (2009), a biographical drama about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 2007, he adapted ""Blackpool"" for CBS as ""Viva Laughlin"". Born and raised in Hazel Grove, Stockport, Bowker was educated at Marple Hall School and read philosophy and English at the University of Leeds. He taught for twelve years in a"
"is forced to look for work elsewhere. While absent from Coketown, he is wrongly accused of robbing Bounderby's bank. On his way back to vindicate himself, he falls down a mine-shaft. He is rescued but dies of his injuries. Bitzer – is a very pale classmate of Sissy's who is brought up on facts and taught to operate according to self-interest. He takes up a job in Bounderby's bank, and later tries to arrest Tom. Rachael – is the friend of Stephen Blackpool who attests to his innocence when he is accused of robbing Bounderby's bank by Tom. She is"
"Wilkins Micawber Wilkins Micawber is a clerk in Charles Dickens's 1850 novel ""David Copperfield"". He is traditionally identified with the optimistic belief that ""something will turn up."" Micawber was incarcerated in debtors' prison (the King's Bench Prison) after failing to meet his creditors' demands. His long-suffering wife, Emma, stands by him despite his financial exigencies that force her to pawn all of her family's heirlooms. She lives by the maxims, ""I will never desert Mr. Micawber!"" and ""Experientia does it!"" (from ""Experientia docet"", ""One learns by experience."") Micawber is hired as a clerk by the scheming Uriah Heep, who assumes"
"'Mrs Dickens's Establishment' in Gower Street in London; this despite the fact that she had no experience in teaching or administering a school. Unsurprisingly, no pupils materialised. As Charles Dickens later wrote, ""Nobody ever came to the school, nor do I recollect that anybody ever proposed to come, or that the least preparation was made to receive anybody."" To help support the family financially the 12-year-old Charles Dickens, to his great humiliation, was taken from school to work at Warren's Blacking Factory where his wages were 6s a week. On 20 February 1824 John Dickens was imprisoned in the Marshalsea"
"for a number of memorable quotations: Wilkins Micawber Wilkins Micawber is a clerk in Charles Dickens's 1850 novel ""David Copperfield"". He is traditionally identified with the optimistic belief that ""something will turn up."" Micawber was incarcerated in debtors' prison (the King's Bench Prison) after failing to meet his creditors' demands. His long-suffering wife, Emma, stands by him despite his financial exigencies that force her to pawn all of her family's heirlooms. She lives by the maxims, ""I will never desert Mr. Micawber!"" and ""Experientia does it!"" (from ""Experientia docet"", ""One learns by experience."") Micawber is hired as a clerk by"
"He himself is killed in the Blackbourne River Flood. Ah Ling/Hendrik van Eeden/Tzaddik is in ""The Ruby in the Smoke"" and ""The Tiger in the Well"". An ex-pickpocket, Trembler works for the Garlands in ""The Ruby in the Smoke"" and is characteristically nervous, hence his nickname. He takes to Adelaide very quickly and loves her like a daughter. The stereographic picture of Trembler with Adelaide on his knee is a clue to the true identity of the 'Cockney Queen' in ""The Tin Princess"". Trembler and Mrs. Molloy are one of Sally's ports of call in ""The Tiger in the Well"""
"good character and 'the respect of the neighborhood,' there is not a living to be got out of the broom."" The occupation of crossing sweeper received perhaps its most famous literary treatment in Charles Dickens' novel ""Bleak House"" with the character of Jo, a homeless boy who ""fights it out at his crossing among the mud and wheels, the horses, whips, and umbrellas, and gets but a scanty sum..."" Jo has been characterized as ""one of the most significant figures"" in the novel and as a way for Dickens to address juvenile vagrancy, which was seen as a serious social"
"Gradgrind - a younger sister of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind who spends a lot of time with Sissy Jupe. She is cheerful, affectionate and despite looking similar to Louisa, in personality she is opposite. Dickens wished to educate readers about the working conditions of some of the factories in the industrial towns of Manchester, and Preston, to ""strike the heaviest blow in my power"", and as well to confront the assumption that prosperity runs parallel to morality. This notion he systematically deconstructed in through his portrayal of the moral monsters, Mr. Bounderby and James Harthouse. Dickens also believed in the"
"Kerr, £40 and 10 shillings, a sum equivalent to £ in 2019. Twelve years old at the time, Dickens was sent to live in lodgings with Mrs. Ellen Roylance in Little College Street, Camden Town, from where he walked five miles (8 km) every day to Warren's blacking factory at 30 Hungerford Stairs, a factory owned by a relative of his mother's. He spent 10 hours a day wrapping bottles of shoe polish for six shillings a week to pay for his keep. His mother, Elizabeth Barrow, and her three youngest children joined her husband in the Marshalsea in April"
"projects have included an adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel, ""A Spot of Bother"", a medical drama series called ""Monroe"" for ITV1, and the biographical BBC film ""Eric and Ernie"" about Morecambe and Wise, broadcast on 1 January 2011. In 2015, he wrote the three-part BBC series ""Capital"" based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name. Peter Bowker Peter Bowker (born 1958) is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the television serials ""Blackpool"" (2004), a musical drama about a shady casino owner; ""Occupation"" (2009), which follows three military servicemen adjusting to civilian life after a tour"
"serial consisting of four 30 minute episodes. Cal MacAninch starred as Fin. The Blackhouse The Blackhouse is the first novel of The Lewis Trilogy by the Scottish writer Peter May. A suspense thriller, the action takes place mostly on the remote and weather-beaten Isle of Lewis off the coast of northern Scotland. The protagonist, Detective Inspector Finlay Macleod (known as Fin), a native of the island, is sent from his Edinburgh police station to investigate the murder of a man who, it transpires, was the bully at Fin’s school. The ""modus operandi"" of the crime resembles a murder that Fin"
"who was also known as ""The Gloucester Miser"". According to the sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's views on the poor are a reflection of those of the demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus, while the miser's questions ""Are there no prisons? ... And the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?"" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised by the Chartist philosopher Thomas Carlyle, ""Are there not treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-Law?"" There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge"