Factory Lives: Four Nineteenth-Century Working-Class Autobiographies (Nineteenth-Century British Aut) [Paperback]

James R. Simmons Jr (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1551112728 | ISBN-13: 978-1551112725 | Edition: 1

Factory Lives contains four works of great importance in the field of nineteenth-century working-class autobiography: John Brown's A Memoir of Robert Blincoe; William Dodd's A Narrative of the Experience and Sufferings of William Dodd; Ellen Johnston's "Autobiography"; and James Myles's Chapters in the Life of a Dundee Factory Boy. This Broadview edition also includes a remarkably rich selection of historical documents that provide context for these works. Appendices include contemporary responses to the autobiographies, debates on factory legislation, transcripts of testimony given before parliamentary committees on child labour, and excerpts from literary works on factory life by Harriet Martineau, Frances Trollope, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Factory Lives is a wonderful and wonderfully affordable resource for anyone who teaches British nineteenth-century literature, culture, or history. The text does a real service by providing a representative sampling of working-class autobiographies from this period. The engagingly learned introduction by Janice Carlisle provides a rich and wide-ranging contextualization that will help teachers and students approach these texts from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary angles. I cannot imagine teaching a course on the Condition of England novel without including this collection on my reading list." (Elaine Hadley )

"This eye-opening edition of working-class autobiographies written by men and women who labored in the harsh industrial system of Victorian Britain is a useful addition to our understanding of the era's full human costs in terms of physical and psychological suffering. It is an engaging emotional experience to read these carefully selected accounts of individuals working long hours in the mills and factories. The collection of official reports and legislative documents that attempted to bring social reforms places these autobiographies in their full and proper historical and political contexts. An added bonus of the edition is the inclusion of a range of contemporary poetry and fiction on industrial life." (William B. Thesing )

From the Back Cover

Factory Lives contains four works of great importance in the field of nineteenth-century working-class autobiography: John Brown's A Memoir of Robert Blincoe; William Dodd's A Narrative of the Experience and Sufferings of William Dodd; Ellen Johnston's "Autobiography"; and James Myles's Chapters in the Life of a Dundee Factory Boy. This Broadview edition also includes a remarkably rich selection of historical documents that provide context for these works. Appendices include contemporary responses to the autobiographies, debates on factory legislation, transcripts of testimony given before parliamentary committees on child labour, and excerpts from literary works on factory life by Harriet Martineau, Frances Trollope, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among others.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 498 pages
• Publisher: Broadview Press; 1 edition (April 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551112728
• ISBN-13: 978-1551112725
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,544,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Rick Simmons was born and raised in South Carolina, and during the course of his education, he attended Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University and the University of South Carolina, where he completed his PhD in 1997. He lives in Louisiana with his wife, Sue, and his children, Courtenay and Cord, though he still spends a portion of the summer at his family home in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. He is the holder of the George K. Anding Endowed Professorship at Louisiana Tech University, where he is currently the Director of the Honors Program as well as the Director of the Center for Academic and Professional Development.