The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

Robert Tressell was the nom-de-plume of Robert Noonan, a house painter. Although born in Dublin, Tressel settled in England after living in South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. He chose the surname Tressell in reference to the trestle table, an important part of his kit as a painter and decorator (though baptised Croker and usually self-styled Noonan). Based on his own experiences of poverty, exploitation, and his terror that he and his daughter Kathleen — whom he was raising alone — would be consigned to the workhouse if he became ill, Tressell embarked on a detailed and scathing analysis of the relationship between working-class people and their employers. The "philanthropists" of the title are the workers who, in Tressell's view, acquiesce in their own exploitation in the interests of their bosses. The novel is set in the fictional town of Mugsborough, based on the southern English coastal town of Hastings, where Tressell lived. The original title page of the book carried the subtitle: "Being the story of twelve months in Hell, told by one of the damned, and written down by Robert Tressell."

He completed The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in 1910, but the 1,600-page hand-written manuscript was rejected by the three publishing houses to which it was submitted. The rejections severely depressed Tressell, and Kathleen had to save the manuscript from being burnt. She placed it for safekeeping in a metal box underneath her bed.

After Tressell died of tuberculosis, Kathleen was determined to have her father's writing published and showed it to a friend, the writer Jessie Pope. Pope recommended the book to her own publisher, who bought the rights in April 1914 for £25. It was published that year in the UK, Canada, and the USA, the Soviet Union in 1920, and Germany in 1925. The publisher removed much of socialist ideology from the first edition; an unabridged edition with Tressell's original ending was not published until 1955.

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Classic & Contemporary Drama

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

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