Overlong, but still inspirational
3 stars
I am always intrigued by real novels that earn a mention in other novels I've enjoyed so, when The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists cropped up in the entertaining audiobook A Very British Coup, I made a mental note to keep an eye out for a copy. It's taken a while to spot one, but the library at Camping El Naranjal triumphed. I was nearly put off by the sheer volume of this volume - it is well over 700 pages - but as it was a Penguin Modern Classic I assumed they would know a good book when they published one and so took a chance on it. TRTP is set in a faintly disguised Hastings. We have visited there a few times so I was interested to learn about the town as it was a century ago. Tressell sets his tale among a crew of poor painter-decorators who work amid …
I am always intrigued by real novels that earn a mention in other novels I've enjoyed so, when The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists cropped up in the entertaining audiobook A Very British Coup, I made a mental note to keep an eye out for a copy. It's taken a while to spot one, but the library at Camping El Naranjal triumphed. I was nearly put off by the sheer volume of this volume - it is well over 700 pages - but as it was a Penguin Modern Classic I assumed they would know a good book when they published one and so took a chance on it. TRTP is set in a faintly disguised Hastings. We have visited there a few times so I was interested to learn about the town as it was a century ago. Tressell sets his tale among a crew of poor painter-decorators who work amid conditions of almost overwhelming poverty and deprivation. The characters of the workmen and their bosses are well-drawn and easily believable although with a tendency to over-exaggeration at times. Descriptions of the workmen's homes and clothing are heart-rending and I didn't really previously understand just how harsh life could be prior to the introduction of the Welfare State. I remember the subject being exposed in Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, but somehow fiction can often make situations more 'real' than factual books. The best parts of this story are the conversations over the dinnertime tea pail. These are sometimes humorous or angry or desperate, and it is where the ensemble cast really comes to life for the reader. Unfortunately, the book also contains a vast amount of lengthy solo speechmaking and narrative political preaching which makes sense in the tale once around, but these passages and arguments are repeated again and again and again. Tressell wrote TRTP to promote his own political belief in socialism - at this period almost pure communism - and frequently allows either his enthusiasm for the new or his anger at the old to run away with him. This is a shame as it makes what could be a fascinating and powerful novel into a longwinded diatribe that ultimately loses its impact. I have given it three stars as much of the actual storyline, physical descriptions and scenes are brilliantly written, but the whole book is easily 300 pages longer than it needs to be.
