Wonderful, thought-provoking book, passionately written. Yes, it is a little repetitive, but that comes from Tressell's frustration and contempt for the system. I rarely re-read a book, but I know this is one I'll go back to. ( )

This book is essentially a socialist manifesto. I picked it up for two reasons: I was told this was an English classic, which was slightly different because it revolves around the plight of the working class. Although I can think of several books which touch on this topic, none quite as emphatically as this one for sure. The other reason is that I have a lot of socialist friends, who insist that socialism and communism were different concepts, and I couldn't figure it out, so I realized this book would be a good introduction to understanding my friend's political perspectives.

Doubtless, this book provides a strong foundation for anyone who is thinking of joining the SWP, or any other socialist organization. It gave a stark contrast of the wealth disparity in England, highlighted the irony of the poorest of the poor slaving away to build gilded mansions for the Earls, Lords and other landed gentry of England. Another contrast which is not easily missed is showing the worst case scenario of capitalism, and providing the best case scenario of socialism. The way it was described in this book made a Socialist republic sound positively utopian! However, I do know that every system is flawed, no matter how well-intentioned their perpetrators are. I was not converted to Socialism by this book, but I am more convinced than before that there is something deeply wrong with the way our world is being run today.

As a novel, I found it extremely repetitive, and I might pass out from annoyance if I ever hear the phrase 'bare necessities of life' again. However, after some light research I discovered that the author was writing from real-life experiences, and so the reiteration came from a place of utter and real frustration with the status quo. Still, I thought that this particular idea could have been more articulate.

My favorite thing about this book was the theme of education. I completely felt for the writer when I could see the protagonists desperation about how the education of the poorer classes was slowly being driven out of them until they were reduced to semi-literate 'animals', as is described in the book. The fact that people use religion to push the agenda of a select few does make me feel incredibly sad and outraged, because religion is meant to be beautiful and common to everyone. C'est la vie, though!

The characters were lively, despite their wretched poverty, and I enjoyed trying to decipher their incredibly thick accents, which I don't think I could place to any section of England even if I heard it outright. I also loved the silly and meaningful names assigned to each character, particularly the names of the building firms! ( )

The book is a long one, and repetitive but the repeated aspects work more like a good chorus than a tedious playback. The scene is Edwardian England, shortly before WWI, and touches on the lives of some very ordinary working men and the efforts of one of their number, a convinced Socialist, to enlighten them about the economic and political reasons for the toil and poverty they are subjected to.The events are related in a matter of fact way, and the tone is without sentimentality - but the material is biting about the joint and symbiotic evils of Religion and Capital, and rehearses arguments for their abolition which would still have purchase today, since, although materially the working classes are 'better off', they are, in the UK at least, still prone to social injustice, and enjoy very different lives and lifespans from those of the middle class - and the moral would still apply, once the developing world and the abject position of millions of other workers were brought into the frame.After having lived through Britain in the 1970s, and studied in the Soviet Union, I know all about the 'dark side' of Socialism in practice. And yet, the novel moves one to the same extent as Dickens 'A Christmas Carol', in which the ghost of Christmas present points to two ghoulish children at his feet:'"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I sees something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?""It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's sorrowful reply. "Look here."From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment."Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!" exclaimed the Ghost.They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and
pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has
monsters half so horrible and dread.Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie
of such enormous magnitude."Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more."They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for
on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!""Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge."Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?" '(Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXsALU...)I wonder if other Anobiians could tell me of similar working-class novels they would consider necessary reads to understand their culture? ( )

I tried, I really tried but I could not finish this book - got about half way and retired defeated.
Working class life in the 19th century, poverty , class conflict and all.
Worthy but dull ( )

A must-read for any would-be socialist. Tressell presents to the reader a scene of everyday society, with real characters and plot devices and imbues everything with a heightened sense of the politics underpinning it all. ( )