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Chartism (Victorian Literature)

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  1. Introduction
  2. Chartism was a national political movement, associated with working-class radicalism, with the avowed goal of forcing the British parliament to accept the “Six Points” of the People’s Charter: a vote for every man over 21, secret ballots, no property qualification for MPs, salaries for MPs, equal constituencies, and annual parliaments. All of these demands except the last would be met within a century. The People’s Charter originated from the London Working Men’s Association (LWMA) and was published in 1837. It rapidly became the platform for a burgeoning political movement that went far beyond the more modest aims of the LWMA. Following mass meetings across the country, the first gathering of Chartist delegates met in London in February 1839. In July of the same year, they presented a petition signed by well over a million people to Parliament, which rejected it. Outbreaks of violence followed, particularly in Wales in November 1839, where the abortive Newport uprising led to police violence against demonstrators and the arrest and transportation of its leaders. A second Chartist petition was presented to Parliament in May 1842 and again rejected, followed by a general strike (the Plug Plot riots) across the north. During the mid-1840s, Chartism’s most charismatic leader, Feargus O’Connor, turned his attention to his “Land Plan,” which was to provide members with their own land for cultivation. Despite some successes, the grandiose scheme largely failed. In April 1848, a final unsuccessful attempt was made to force Parliament to accept the Chartist petition, after a mass rally on Kennington Common stoked by fears of revolution. Chartism has generally been perceived as having lost much of its force after 1848, though recent historians have demonstrated the extent of its legacy in the 1850s and beyond. From the outset, Chartism had a tendency to splinter into different groupings according to geographical region, economic status, and political affiliation. Nonetheless, its success lay in its creation of a broad consensus of agreement across the country, fostered in particular through widely circulated Chartist newspapers and periodicals. In addition to its political orientation, Chartism was also a significant literary movement. Many of its leaders achieved success as poets, and the literature produced by Chartists (cited below) should be supplemented with important Victorian novels—notably Charles Kingsley’s Alton Locke, Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton—which responded directly to Chartism and its contexts.
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  4. General Overviews
  5. The history of Chartism is contentious, and its geographical, class-based, and chronological diversity means that few 20th- and 21st-century historians have attempted to assess the movement as a whole. Introductions to historical works on Chartism from the 1980s and 1990s often lament the absence of a comprehensive study of the movement. Chase 2007 goes some way toward remedying this and provides an excellent starting point. Thompson 1984 is a classic study of Chartism and remains one of the most important publications of the last decades of the 20th century, still highly relevant. Tholfsen 1976 helpfully locates Chartism within a wider UK context, while Weisser 1975 does the same for the European context. Both works also situate Chartism in relation to other radical movements of the period. Due to the popularity of Chartism as a topic on A-level history courses in the United Kingdom, there are also a number of general studies of the period and the movement aimed primarily at 16-to-18-year-old students, which are not listed in this bibliography entry.
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  7. Chase, Malcolm. Chartism: A New History. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007.
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  11. Important general study of Chartism, taking a broadly chronological approach but interspersing the narrative with biographical accounts of less well-known Chartist activists. Successfully highlights the disparate nature of Chartism while creating a clear narrative about the events and personalities involved. Excellent starting point.
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  16. Tholfsen, Trygve. Working-Class Radicalism in Mid-Victorian England. London: Croom Helm, 1976.
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  20. Situates Chartism in relation to working-class radicalism more generally: pp. 83–108 are specifically on Chartism. Remains a useful study on the period, though some of its arguments have been qualified by more recent work.
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  25. Thompson, Dorothy. The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution. New York: Pantheon, 1984.
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  29. Highly influential study of Chartism by one of its most important historians. The study sandwiches a middle section titled “Who Were the Chartists?”—which contains a particularly welcome early discussion of women in Chartism—between historical studies of the years 1838–1841 and 1842–1850.
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  34. Weisser, Henry. British Working-Class Movements and Europe, 1815–48. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1975.
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  38. Contains two chapters titled “The Chartists and Europe, 1836–1844” and “The Chartists and Europe, 1844–8.” Useful study of Chartist connections with Europe and the strategic importance of European events in Chartist rhetoric and policy.
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  43. Anthologies
  44. In their editorial notes and guidance for readers, modern anthologies can provide a helpful starting point in researching Chartism. Hollis 1973, which generally gives only a paragraph or two as a sample from each text, is useful for those looking for brief examples of Chartist thought and rhetoric. Mather 1980 focuses specifically on Chartism, though again the extracts given are relatively short. Claeys 2001, a six-volume anthology, concentrates solely on reprinting pamphlets. While these are not generally considered the most important source for Chartist writing, this is certainly an extensive and valuable set of volumes. On Chartist autobiography, Vincent 1977 includes autobiographical writings by various figures associated with the movement. On poetry, Scheckner 1989 contains a helpful selection but has been heavily criticized for oversimplifying the nature of Chartist poetics and for unacknowledged debts to Kovalev 1956, a groundbreaking collection that is unfortunately considerably more difficult to acquire. Haywood 1995 focuses on Chartist fiction (see also Haywood’s work in Fiction and Poetry) and contains a valuable introduction. Thompson 1986 provides by far the largest selection of reprints of Chartist texts, but the facsimile format means that no context is provided.
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  46. Claeys, Gregory, ed. Chartist Movement in Britain, 1838–1850. 6 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2001.
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  50. This extensive edition republishes pamphlets issued separately as complete works. All the major Chartist leaders are well represented, and it also includes a number of rare and hard-to-find items. The final volume contains a helpful index. A full listing of contents is available online.
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  55. Haywood, Ian, ed. The Literature of Struggle: An Anthology of Chartist Fiction. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1995.
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  59. Reprints a variety of short stories and extracts from longer novels, arranged thematically, most of which were published in radical periodicals. Authors represented range from the leading lights of Chartist fiction (Ernest Jones, W. J. Linton) to more obscure writers. A helpful introduction sets these fictions in context.
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  64. Hollis, Patricia, ed. Class and Conflict in Nineteenth-Century England, 1815–1850. Birth of Modern Britain. London: Routledge, 1973.
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  68. Just under a hundred pages of short extracts from a wide range of primary sources on aspects of the Chartist movement, with brief introductions and suggestions for further reading.
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  73. Kovalev, Y. V., ed. An Anthology of Chartist Literature. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956.
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  77. Fascinating anthology compiled from a Marxist perspective, which offered the first compilation of Chartist literature and had considerable influence on its rehabilitation. The Russian introduction was published in an English translation by W. H. Chaloner, Victorian Studies 2 (1958): 117–138.
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  82. Mather, F. C., ed. Chartism and Society: An Anthology of Documents. London: Bell and Hyman, 1980.
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  86. A good selection of extracts, briefly introduced and contextualized, with the focus on Chartism’s engagement with political, religious, and social affairs in the period.
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  91. Scheckner, Peter, ed. An Anthology of Chartist Poetry: Poetry of the British Working Class, 1830s–1850s. London: Associated University Presses, 1989.
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  95. Provides a relatively basic introduction to Chartist poetry and an extensive selection, inevitably concentrated on poems with a political edge, of both anonymous poems from Chartist periodicals and works by leading Chartist authors such as Ebenezer Elliot, Ernest Jones, W. J. Linton, and Gerald Massey.
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  100. Thompson, Dorothy, ed. Chartism: Working-Class Politics in the Industrial Revolution. 22 vols. New York: Garland, 1986.
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  104. Reprints, in facsimile, various documents of Chartism, including pamphlets, published addresses, journals, letters, manifestos, trial accounts, autobiographies, and recollections. Individual volumes from the collection are cited elsewhere in this bibliography as appropriate. Each volume contains a full listing of the contents of the series on the end page. An excellent collection of primary resources, though not readily available outside major libraries.
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  109. Vincent, David, ed. Testaments of Radicalism: Memoirs of Working-Class Politicians, 1790–1885. London: Europa, 1977.
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  113. Contains several memoirs by men involved in the Chartist movement—most important, John James Bezer’s Autobiography of One of the Chartist Rebels of 1848 and Benjamin Wilson’s The Struggles of an Old Chartist. Bezer’s unfinished memoir, published in serial form in the Christian Socialist in 1851 (and in part a riposte to another contributor, Charles Kingsley, and his Alton Locke), is particularly notable for its lively and informal style.
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  118. Reference Resources
  119. Chartism has been fortunate in attracting enthusiastic professional and amateur historians with a desire to make their knowledge accessible via the Internet: there are several superb resources run by individuals. Richard Brown’s Looking at History and Stephen Roberts’s Chartism and the Chartists offer individual takes by leading historians on Chartism and include significant commentary on recent events and publications on their respective sites. Mark Crail’s Chartist Ancestors is a major online source containing a wealth of historical information. Ian Petticrew’s Minor Victorian Poets and Authors, originating as a site on Gerald Massey, is the web’s most significant open-access resource on working-class poetry and literary criticism of the period. Victorian Web offers useful introductory essays on Chartism. Nineteenth-Century British Pamphlets Online contains digitized pamphlets by Chartist leaders and others, while the British Library’s database of newspapers is invaluable in consulting Chartist periodicals. Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition contains an open-access version of the Northern Star, also held in the British Library’s database.
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  121. British Library. British Newspapers: 1800–1900.
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  124.  
  125. Essential resource for those researching Chartist newspapers and periodicals. Many titles have full-text access. Requires subscription.
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  129.  
  130. Brown, Richard. Looking at History
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  133.  
  134. The author of this useful blog on his historical interests has written a highly regarded A-level textbook on Chartism and a 2010 study of the Newport rising in conjunction with Australian and Canadian uprisings. All his posts on Chartism, which include book reviews and scholarly essays and reflections on various aspects of the movement, may be found here. A 2007 essay on Chartist historiography partly updates the published work of Taylor (Taylor 1996) and Messner (Messner 1999), both cited under Historical Studies. Highly recommended.
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  139. Crail, Mark. Chartist Ancestors.
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  142.  
  143. Another outstanding resource. Contains numerous short essays on aspects of Chartism, with extensive use of primary sources, biographies of leading figures, lists of Chartist members, and much more. The site also supplies information on current Chartist events and publications and has a bookshop.
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  148. Nineteenth-Century British Pamphlets Online.
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  151.  
  152. Contains digitized texts of the People’s Charter and pamphlets by William Lovett and Julian Harney, among others. Searchable by author, date, or subject. Also includes information on specific library archives relevant to Chartism, primarily the Cowen Tracts collection at the University of Newcastle.
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  157. Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition.
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  160.  
  161. Offers free, full-text access to The Northern Star and a good introductory essay to this important Chartist periodical.
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  166. Petticrew, Ian. Minor Victorian Poets and Authors.
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  169.  
  170. While centered on the life and works of Gerald Massey, this superb resource incorporates biographical information, full-text copies of major works, reviews, and analyses of a wide variety of minor Victorian literary figures. Featured Chartist poets and prose writers, besides Massey, include Ebenezer Elliott, Thomas Hood, Mark Hovell (author of an early and influential 20th-century study of Chartism), George Jacob Holyoake, and others. A great starting point for research.
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  175. Roberts, Stephen. Chartism and the Chartists: The Research and Publications of Stephen Roberts
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  178.  
  179. Leading Chartist historian Roberts’s site includes news, book reviews, details of his own ongoing research and publications, and information on Chartist figures and events.
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  184. Victorian Web. Chartism.
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  187.  
  188. Contains a series of short essays by various scholars on aspects of Chartism.
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  193. Bibliographies
  194. The most recent bibliography, Ashton, et al. 1995, builds on Harrison and Thompson 1978 and contains the most extensive list of material related to Chartism. Hambrick 1986 focuses on a particular collection, primarily owned by the leading Chartist Julian Harney.
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  196. Ashton, Owen, Robert Fyson, and Stephen Roberts, eds. The Chartist Movement: A New Annotated Bibliography. London: Mansell, 1995.
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  199.  
  200. Updates Harrison and Thompson 1978 and also defines Chartism in slightly broader terms, enabling the inclusion of a greater wealth of material. Contains a brief and helpful introduction by Dorothy Thompson.
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  205. Hambrick, Margaret. A Chartist’s Library. London and New York: Mansell, 1986.
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  209. Based on a collection gifted to Vanderbilt that contained approximately 1,400 books owned by G. J. Harney and hundreds more owned by his family. The bibliography provides a fascinating insight into the reading practices of this leading Chartist.
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  214. Harrison, J. F. C., and Thompson, Dorothy, eds. Bibliography of the Chartist Movement, 1837–1976. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Harvester, 1978.
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  217.  
  218. Includes sections on manuscript sources, contemporary 19th-century sources, and unpublished and published secondary material.
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  223. Essay Collections
  224. There are a number of strong essay collections on Chartist history and culture, which provide a good starting point for research by incorporating multiple viewpoints. Briggs 1959 is considered a classic work, the forerunner of many later studies in Chartism, and is still worth reading. Epstein and Thompson 1982 was a similarly groundbreaking collection, with Gareth Stedman Jones’s essay a particular focus for subsequent debates over the “linguistic turn” in historical studies. Thompson, a leading Chartist historian with a strong class-based perspective, collected her own essays in Thompson 1993, which includes some of her most important work. Most recently, Ashton, et al. 1999 and Allen and Ashton 2009 showcase late-20th- and early-21st-century developments in research, primarily in historical studies, but also in the literature and culture of Chartism. Allen and Ashton 2005 concentrates specifically on recent work on the Chartist press, providing a diverse study of its influence.
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  226. Allen, Joan, and Owen Ashton, eds. Papers for the People: A Study of the Chartist Press. Merlin Press Chartist Studies. London: Merlin, 2005.
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  230. Nine essays by leading historians, including Malcolm Chase, Paul Pickering, Edward Royle, and others. Several focus on less-well-known periodicals, such as The Labourer or The Western Vindicator, and the collection includes essays on aspects of the press in Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, extending its geographical scope.
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  235. Allen, Joan, and Owen Ashton, eds. Special Issue: Chartism. Labour History Review 74.1 (2009).
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  238.  
  239. Six essays representative of new directions in Chartist studies, plus a useful historiographic overview in the editorial. A good indication of historical interests in Chartism in the 21st century.
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  244. Ashton, Owen, Robert Fyson, and Stephen Roberts, eds. The Chartist Legacy. Rendlesham, UK: Merlin, 1999.
  245.  
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  247.  
  248. Representative of differing interests in the field, including many leading Chartist historians, and covering individual figures (with two essays specifically on O’Connor); questions of political identity and memorialization; public speaking and periodicals; literature and autobiography. Essays range from the relatively introductory to the highly specialized. Foreword by Asa Briggs.
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  253. Briggs, Asa, ed. Chartist Studies. London: Macmillan, 1959.
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  256.  
  257. Foundational collection, particularly important and influential in its focus on local studies. Still relevant today.
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  262. Epstein, James, and Dorothy Thompson, eds. The Chartist Experience: Studies in Working-Class Radicalism and Culture, 1830–1860. London and Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1982.
  263.  
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  265.  
  266. Classic selection of essays by various historians, with the main emphasis on various local aspects of Chartism (in Birmingham, Staffordshire, southeast Lancashire, Nottingham, Halifax, and elsewhere). Also contains an essay by Thompson titled “Ireland and the Irish in English Radicalism” (pp. 120–151), John Belchem on Feargus O’Connor in 1848, and a version of Gareth Stedman Jones’s highly influential essay “The Language of Chartism” (pp. 3–58).
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  271. Thompson, Dorothy. Outsiders: Class, Gender, and Nation. New York: Verso, 1993.
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  275. Revised versions of essays published in the 1970s and early 1980s by this leading Chartist historian, including a valuable historiographical overview in “Chartism and the Historians” (pp. 19–45). The introduction provides a fascinating reflection on Thompson’s career (and that of her husband, E. P. Thompson) in the light of 20th-century politics and culture.
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  280. Contemporary Accounts
  281. The finest contemporary defenses of Chartism by Chartists, along with accounts of key speeches and events, can be found in its periodicals and newspapers. Readers should also consult the collections of sources listed under Anthologies. Gammage 1969 is the most significant Victorian analysis of Chartism and had a major influence on Chartist historiography in the 20th century. Engels and Carlyle wrote more from the perspective of outside observers of the movement. Engels 1999, first published in 1845, posited that class warfare was imminent and unavoidable in the 1840s, while Carlyle 1840, intending to shake up a middle-class audience, similarly urged the necessity for immediate measures to avert working-class suffering from breaking out as violent action. These texts provide an interesting comparison with Lovett and Collins 1960. Writing from jail in 1840, the authors deliberately present Chartism as a reasonable, peaceful, and moderate solution to society’s ills.
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  283. Carlyle, Thomas. Chartism. London: Fraser, 1840.
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  287. Directed to middle-class readers, Carlyle is sympathetic if condescending to the working classes, arguing that Chartism is the expression of their misery and suffering. He warns that such movements are inevitable due to the neglect and incompetence of Parliament and the ruling classes and advises education and emigration as possible solutions. A typically impassioned essay, this should be read in conjunction with similar fictionalized accounts by Victorian novelists.
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  292. Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working Class in England. Edited by David McLellan. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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  295.  
  296. Classic study of the working classes based on Engels’s experiences in Manchester in the 1840s. First published in German in 1845 and translated into English in 1887. Contains a brief discussion of Chartism in the “Labour Movements” chapter.
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  301. Gammage, R. G. The History of the Chartist Movement, 1837–1854. 2d ed. Introduction by John Saville. London: Frank Cass, 1969.
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  304.  
  305. Gammage was a mid-rank propagandist, speaker, and organizer for the Chartist movement, who first published his recollections in parts in 1854–1855. Although clearly affected at the time by his bitterness and disillusion, Gammage’s detailed and readable history remains an essential Victorian account of Chartism, and it exercised a significant influence on Chartist historiography in the 20th century.
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  310. Lovett, William, and John Collins.. Chartism: A New Organisation of the People. Introduction by Asa Briggs. Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press, 1960.
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  313.  
  314. Written and published in 1840 while Lovett and Collins were in Warwick Gaol, this pamphlet argues that Chartism has been “grossly misrepresented” (p. 17) as a violent and intemperate movement. It lays out a plan for the formation of the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People and extols the benefits of education, devoting considerable space to Lovett’s plan for educational reform.
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  319. Autobiographies and Recollections
  320. Autobiography is a vital genre of 19th-century laboring-class literature, and many Chartist sympathizers recorded the history of their political development. Francis Place was one of an earlier generation of radicals, whose library above his shop was a famed meeting place for generations of social reformers. While his involvement with Chartism came near the end of his career, his input in drafting the People’s Charter was essential. Place 1972 contains his previously unpublished memoirs, thin on the Chartist period but important in tracing the development of his political thought. William Lovett drafted the Charter with Place and was prominent in the London Working Men’s Association. Lovett 1967 contains detailed information on the Chartist period, though colored throughout by personal hostility to Feargus O’Connor, and by Lovett’s relative lack of engagement with Chartism outside London. Gammage (see Contemporary Accounts) and Lovett both consulted Robert Lowery’s autobiographical journal articles when writing their accounts. Lowery, Newcastle delegate to the Chartist convention and a popular touring lecturer and missionary for Chartism, was converted to Lovett’s “moral force” position after 1842 and became active in the temperance movement. His relatively even-handed account, found in Harrison and Hollis 1979, is the only major primary source on some key events of the Chartist decades. Davenport 1994, an autobiography with selected poems published in 1845, also influenced leading Chartists, though the text itself is largely silent on Davenport’s Chartist activities. James Dawson Burn went through a brief period of intense Chartist activism, and Burn 1978 enables readers to situate this period in the context of the life of a frequently unemployed and often itinerant working man. Thomas Cooper was perhaps Chartism’s leading poet, and Cooper 1872 is a vital text for studies of working-class poets as well as politicians. Like Davenport 1994, Leno 1892 includes a selection of John Bedford Leno’s poems in an autobiography describing his work as agitator and editor. George Jacob Holyoake, unlike most of these authors, was not wholly affiliated with Chartism, but Holyoake 1893 is an important text of the radical secularist tradition and good on the contexts of Chartism. Readers should also consult Vincent 1977 (cited under Anthologies) for shorter autobiographies of working-class Chartists.
  321.  
  322. Burn, James Dawson. Autobiography of a Beggar Boy. Edited by David Vincent. London: Europa, 1978.
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  325.  
  326. One of the best-known Victorian working-class autobiographies of its day, Burn’s account went through several editions after publication in 1855. Burn was involved with Chartism in Glasgow in the 1830s, though his vehement objection to the proposal for a universal strike in the summer of 1839 led to his abandonment of the cause. See pp. 138–152 on the events of this decade.
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  331. Cooper, Thomas. The Life of Thomas Cooper: Written by Himself. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1872.
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  334.  
  335. Well-written account of Cooper’s life, with detailed discussion of his involvement in Chartism and a particular focus on his development as a poet. An essential Chartist autobiography.
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  340. Davenport, Allen. The Life and Literary Pursuits of Allen Davenport, with a Further Selection of the Author’s Work. Edited by Martin Chase. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1994.
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  343.  
  344. Davenport published his autobiography in 1845 and it attracted considerable interest in Chartist circles. As the editor notes, it is intriguingly reserved on his extensive involvement in Chartism. The edition includes selected poems.
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  349. Harrison, Brian and Patricia Hollis, eds. Robert Lowery: Radical and Chartist. London: Europa, 1979.
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  352.  
  353. Contains Robert Lowery’s memoir, published as articles in the Weekly Record, 1856–1857, together with a selection of his other writings. Although their publication in a temperance magazine necessarily affected Lowery’s accounts, he gives a vivid picture of Chartist agitations, including eyewitness accounts of many key events.
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  358. Holyoake, George Jacob. Sixty Years of an Agitator’s Life. 2 vols. 3d ed. London: Fisher Unwin, 1893.
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  361.  
  362. Holyoake (b. 1817–d. 1906) was one of Victorian Britain’s best-known freethinkers and active in the cause of secularism and cooperation. While not specifically identified with Chartism, he was a friend of many leading Chartists, and his diffuse, humorous recollections provide important insights into early-to-mid-Victorian radicalism.
  363.  
  364. Find this resource:
  365.  
  366.  
  367. Leno, John Bedford. Aftermath: With the Autobiography of the Author. London: Reeves and Turner, 1892.
  368.  
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  370.  
  371. Leno (b. 1826–d. 1894) was a working-class printer who converted to Chartism, founded several branches, and edited and produced radical newspapers such as The Spirit of Freedom, with Gerald Massey. His long life meant that he was active in the post-Chartist decades, particularly in agitating for reform in 1867. His entertaining autobiography also includes a selection of his poems, including political verse and songs that were very well known in his day.
  372.  
  373. Find this resource:
  374.  
  375.  
  376. Lovett, William. The Life and Struggles of William Lovett. London: McGibbon and Kee, 1967.
  377.  
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  379.  
  380. First published in 1876, this 1967 shortened edition provides an account of Lovett’s upbringing and career as the leader of working-class politics in London, emphasizing his internationalism and plans for reform through education. Later parts mainly consist of the texts of the addresses and letters Lovett wrote and circulated. His bias against O’Connor and “physical force” Chartism is evident throughout.
  381.  
  382. Find this resource:
  383.  
  384.  
  385. Place, Francis. The Autobiography of Francis Place, 1771–1854. Edited by Mary Thale. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
  386.  
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  388.  
  389. Primarily useful in providing background to the reforming efforts of the Victorian period, rather than as a document of Chartism. Largely written in the 1820s, Place’s autobiography was unpublished until this edition and is consequently engagingly unpolished.
  390.  
  391. Find this resource:
  392.  
  393.  
  394. Biographies
  395. Biographies of leading Chartist figures have provided some of the most carefully researched and focused works on Chartism. From the mid-20th century onward, guided by the example of Schoyen and his nuanced study of Harney (Schoyen 1958), historians have attempted to reconsider the myths and narratives surrounding various leading Chartist figures and to situate them within shifting networks of influence, friendship, and alliance. Plummer 1971, Smith 1973, Epstein 1982, and Wiener 1989 all provide well-researched, sympathetic, and engrossing accounts of their subjects’ lives. Epstein 1982 moved away from older views of O’Connor’s negative influence on Chartism, while Taylor 2003 rehabilitates the reputation of the neglected Ernest Jones. Shaw 1995 also attests to the recent upsurge of interest in the literary activists of Chartism, men known as much for their poems as their politics. Ashton and Pickering 2002 moves away from conventional biographies of Chartist leaders to assess forgotten Chartist lives, demonstrating new engagement with the ordinary men and women who supported Chartism.
  396.  
  397. Ashton, Owen, and Paul A. Pickering. Friends of the People: Uneasy Radicals in the Age of the Chartists. Chartist Study Series. London: Merlin, 2002.
  398.  
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400.  
  401. Provides six case studies of lesser-known Chartist lives, covering people who “did not look like Chartists” (p. 2): three ministers, a doctor, a leisured gentleman, and a newspaper magnate. Helpful in extending our understanding of Chartism’s broad appeal.
  402.  
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405.  
  406. Epstein, James. The Lion of Freedom: Feargus O’ Connor and the Chartist Movement, 1832–1842. London: Croom Helm, 1982.
  407.  
  408. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  409.  
  410. Important reassessment of O’Connor’s career, contradicting earlier, largely negative, portrayals of his leadership and impact on the movement. Primarily considers him as organizer and publisher.
  411.  
  412. Find this resource:
  413.  
  414.  
  415. Plummer, Alfred. Bronterre: A Political Biography of Bronterre O’Brien, 1804–1864. London: Allen and Unwin, 1971.
  416.  
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  418.  
  419. Bronterre O’Brien, like O’Connor, born and educated in Ireland, gave up a career in law for radical politics and became a leading Chartist editor, journalist, and orator. Allied with Julian Harney and, until a bitter break in 1842, with O’Connor, he was at the heart of Chartist events in the 1830s. Plummer’s detailed, engaging account is worth reading as a general study of Chartism as well as a biography.
  420.  
  421. Find this resource:
  422.  
  423.  
  424. Schoyen, A. R. The Chartist Challenge: A Portrait of George Julian Harney. London: Heinemann, 1958.
  425.  
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  427.  
  428. Schoyen’s early biography was a substantial contribution to reassessments of Chartism and provides a readable and balanced account of Harney’s career. As a radical proponent of armed revolution and strong supporter of O’Connor, subeditor and then editor of the Northern Star and other radical newspapers, friend of Engels and first publisher of The Communist Manifesto, Harney exerted considerable influence on Victorian Chartism prior to his emigration in 1855.
  429.  
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432.  
  433. Shaw, David. Gerald Massey: Chartist, Poet, Radical and Freethinker. London: Buckland, 1995.
  434.  
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  436.  
  437. Massey, employed at a silk mill from age 8, came to the Chartist movement late, in 1848, but was prominent in the field of later Chartist periodicals and became a respected poet. He edited journals with Leno and Harney, among others. Shaw provides a well-researched and sympathetic account of his life.
  438.  
  439. Find this resource:
  440.  
  441.  
  442. Smith, Francis Barrymore. Radical Artisan: William James Linton, 1812–97. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1973.
  443.  
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  445.  
  446. Sympathetic account of Linton—poet, journalist, publisher, wood-engraver, and London radical—who maintained an active involvement with leading Chartists (especially William Lovell) and their affairs without ever fully subscribing to the cause.
  447.  
  448. Find this resource:
  449.  
  450.  
  451. Taylor, Miles. Ernest Jones, Chartism, and the Romance of Politics, 1819–1869. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  452.  
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  454.  
  455. The first modern biography of Jones, one of the upper-class Chartist leaders, who became prominent in the cause after 1848 and was known for his literary works as well as political activism. Taylor moves away from earlier biographical accounts in viewing Jones’s literary activities as an essential part of his political endeavors. Good reading.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459.  
  460. Wiener, Joel. William Lovett. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1989.
  461.  
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  463.  
  464. Complicates the traditional view of Lovett as a pacifist moderate. Emphasizes his quiet leadership and reassesses the importance of his National Association. A balanced study that avoids making large claims for its subject.
  465.  
  466. Find this resource:
  467.  
  468.  
  469. Fiction and Poetry
  470. Poetry was by far the most significant literary genre for aspiring Chartist authors. Yet relatively few Chartist poets published collections of their works. Besides the cost of publication, doing so would have priced their work too high for their intended working-class readership. For the (often anonymous) poetry of the Chartist periodicals, see Kovalev 1956 and Scheckner 1989 (cited under Anthologies), as well as Schwab 1987 and Sanders 2009 (cited under General Works). Several Chartist poets, however, did attain considerable literary recognition and were read across classes. Ebenezer Elliott made himself famous as the “Corn-Law Rhymer” (Elliott 1831), perhaps the best-known early Victorian laboring-class poet. Gerald Massey was one of few working-class poets to be read (and admired) by the literary elite, though more for his lyrics than his songs of radicalism. Massey 1851 is a direct commentary on the events of the late 1840s, which made Massey into a fervent Chartist. W. J. Linton, like all these poets, believed strongly in the importance of poetry in educating the people and was known as a humorous and satirical poet and a gifted lyricist (Linton 1865). Cooper 1851—the single most important work by a Chartist poet—is in a different mode than the deliberately political verse of many Chartist authors, incorporating political commentary in a poem designed to highlight the author’s erudition and familiarity with the literary tradition. Works by these authors (and many others) are available online. Chartist fiction has received less critical attention as a literary genre than has Chartist poetry, and it was less respected in its time. Yet the attempts to mingle Chartist propaganda with familiar plotlines and literary tropes create intriguing generic mixes and demonstrate the perceived importance of using the novel for political ends. Ernest Jones and G. M. W. Reynolds (whom Jones perceived as a shameless popularizer) were the most successful and best-known Chartist novelists. Ernest Jones was also an accomplished Chartist poet, and his periodical includes his poems as well as fiction. Jones 1851–1852 provides two instances of his sensationalized fictions about class injustice. Reynolds 1853 is likewise selected as a typical example of his winning combination of political outrage and melodramatic plot. Haywood 1999 additionally offers a well-contextualized edition of two differing works of fiction from the Chartist periodical press. Outside Haywood’s editions of Chartist fiction and the poetry included in collections cited under Anthologies, works by these authors are not available in modern editions, and so the original Victorian publications are cited below.
  471.  
  472. Cooper, Thomas. The Purgatory of Suicides: A Prison-Rhyme in Ten Books. London: J. Watson, 1851.
  473.  
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  475.  
  476. Written in Stafford Gaol, this is the most ambitious work of Chartist poetry: a lengthy, highly allusive poem in Spenserian stanzas, loosely based on the speaker’s voyage to a hellish underworld where he encounters the shades of famous suicides.
  477.  
  478. Find this resource:
  479.  
  480.  
  481. Elliott, Ebenezer. Corn Law Rhymes. London: B. Steill, 1831.
  482.  
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  484.  
  485. Influential example of explicitly political poems and songs, powerful in their anger and satirical scorn about the “bread tax.”
  486.  
  487. Find this resource:
  488.  
  489.  
  490. Haywood, Ian, ed. Chartist Fiction. 2 vols. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999.
  491.  
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  493.  
  494. Contains two texts: Thomas Doubleday’s The Political Pilgrim’s Progress, which appeared in the Northern Liberator in 1839, and Thomas Martin Wheeler’s Sunshine and Shadow: A Tale of the Nineteenth Century, published in the Northern Star in 1849–1850. Doubleday’s short fiction is a version of Bunyan with “Radical” as the hero. Wheeler’s bildungsroman describes the life of a working-class hero, Arthur Morton, who is involved in the major Chartist events of 1839, 1842, and 1848 and suffers exile, destitution, and persecution at the hands of the authorities and the upper classes.
  495.  
  496. Find this resource:
  497.  
  498.  
  499. Jones, Ernest. “De Brassier: A Democratic Romance and A Woman’s Wrongs: A Novel in Four Books.” In Notes to the People. 2 vols. Edited by Ernest Jones. London: J. Pavey, 1851–1852.
  500.  
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  502.  
  503. De Brassier’s entwined plot-lines center on the aristocratic exploitation of women and working-class men, culminating in arson attacks on two corrupt aristocrats and their mansions. A Woman’s Wrongs consists of a series of stories centered on various female characters, with the opening “The Working-Man’s Wife,” perhaps the most significant. Both texts strongly focus on the helplessness of women within the social system, viewing prostitution and seduction as tropes for the simultaneous economic and sexual exploitation of women by upper-class men. Good examples of Chartist fiction’s combination of melodrama with social protest.
  504.  
  505. Find this resource:
  506.  
  507.  
  508. Linton, W. J. Claribel and Other Poems. London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1865.
  509.  
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  511.  
  512. Reveals Linton’s radical political sympathies most overtly in poems on the Polish exiles and the woes of the poor, though the volume as a whole is mostly lyrical verse with a less directly political intention.
  513.  
  514. Find this resource:
  515.  
  516.  
  517. Massey, Gerald. Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love. London: J. Watson, 1851.
  518.  
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  520.  
  521. With the explicit aim to “utter what is stirring in poor men’s hearts,” Massey’s first collection contains many impassioned poems on 1848 and after.
  522.  
  523. Find this resource:
  524.  
  525.  
  526. Petticrew, Ian. Minor Victorian Poets and Authors.
  527.  
  528. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  529.  
  530. Provides the full texts of Massey 1851, Elliott 1831, Cooper 1851 and many more works by these and other radical working-class poets.
  531.  
  532. Find this resource:
  533.  
  534.  
  535. Reynolds, G. M. W. The Seamstress; or, the White Slave of England. London: John Dicks, 1853.
  536.  
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  538.  
  539. Originally published in one of Reynolds’s periodicals, Reynolds’ Miscellany, in 1851. The story of the beautiful, impoverished Virginia Mordaunt, who turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of a duchess, is typical of Reynolds’s popular fiction: sensational in its entangled plots but also offering impassioned critiques of the labor market in mid-Victorian Britain and the harsh economic circumstances of female workers. The 1853 edition is available online.
  540.  
  541. Find this resource:
  542.  
  543.  
  544. Periodicals and Newspapers
  545. The press was the most important method for disseminating Chartist views, and most leading Chartists worked as journalists, editors, and newspaper sellers. Until the repeal of the stamp tax, many publications were unstamped and hence could not legally report news; sellers also risked prosecution. Due to this government repression, the low income of their target audience, and the many competing publications vying for the same readership, Chartist newspapers and periodicals were often short-lived and tended to run out of cash and subscribers repeatedly. Nonetheless, they are a crucial primary source for all investigations into the movement. The Poor Man’s Guardian was one of the earlier radical papers and served to launch James Bronterre O’Brien’s career. The most influential and longest-lived newspaper, with the highest circulation—and a readership that would have far exceeded the actual number of copies sold—was the Northern Star, edited by Feargus O’Connor and then George Julian Harney. The Northern Liberator, as the title suggests, also provided a rallying point for Chartists in the North, while the Chartist Circular achieved a high circulation and reputation in Scotland. In the south, the London-based Charter, associated with the London Working Men’s Association (LWMA) and William Lovett, came from the opposing moderate faction and failed to capture a broad readership. Two of the greatest Chartist journalists and publishers, Harney and Ernest Jones, worked on or for a number of different publications, but are represented here by their largely independent efforts in The Friend of the People and Notes to the People (Jones 1997). The British Library’s database of newspapers 1800–1900 provides full-text access (free for UK Higher Education and Further Education institutions) to most of these papers. Merlin Press reissued a facsimile of Notes to the People, edited by Ernest Jones in 1967, while hard-copy facsimiles of several Chartist journals appeared in the Garland series Chartism: Working-Class Politics in the Industrial Revolution. Thompson 1986 is perhaps the most significant selection of journals in this series, though the lack of commentary or introduction to the facsimiles can be frustrating.
  546.  
  547. Charter. London, 1839–1840.
  548.  
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  550.  
  551. The short-lived Charter (1839–1840) was the organ of the London Working Men’s Association. Edited by William Carpenter (a Bolton delegate for the 1839 convention), it espoused the moderate views of the LWMA, opposing a general strike or any resort to physical force.
  552.  
  553. Find this resource:
  554.  
  555.  
  556. Chartist Circular. Glasgow, 1839–1842.
  557.  
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  559.  
  560. Founded in 1839 by the Universal Suffrage Central Committee for Scotland, in Glasgow, the unstamped Chartist Circular had an immediate success and was important in attempting to unite Scottish Chartism behind basic principles. In the early 1840s, however, circulation rapidly declined and it ceased publication in 1842.
  561.  
  562. Find this resource:
  563.  
  564.  
  565. Friend of the People. London, 1850–1851.
  566.  
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  568.  
  569. Founded by George Julian Harney as a more moderately named version of his Red Republican, and an organ for his views. Harney and Ernest Jones planned to turn the Friend of the People into a major stamped journal to rival the Northern Star, but their plans never came to fruition and the journal rapidly failed for lack of funds.
  570.  
  571. Find this resource:
  572.  
  573.  
  574. Jones, Ernest, ed. Notes to the People, May 1851–May 1852. 2 vols. London: Merlin, 1967.
  575.  
  576. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  577.  
  578. Serial started by Ernest Jones after his release from prison in 1850, Notes to the People was replaced in 1852 by the equally unprofitable People’s Paper. Notable for containing Jones’s Chartist fiction—De Brassier: A Democratic Romance and A Woman’s Wrongs (Jones 1851–1852, cited under Fiction and Poetry)—and his poetry. Jones’s radical socialism is evident throughout.
  579.  
  580. Find this resource:
  581.  
  582.  
  583. Northern Star. Leeds, UK, and London, 1838–1852.
  584.  
  585. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  586.  
  587. By far the most significant Chartist paper, at its peak the Northern Star boasted a circulation of around 50,000. Edited by O’Connor, it was a commercial success and crucial in providing Chartism with a shared community of readers and organizers. In 1842 the paper moved from Leeds to London and was edited by Harney from 1844 to 1849. In the early 1850s, its readership was in decline: O’Connor sold it in 1852, and it briefly passed through Harney’s hands as the Star of Freedom before failing. Also available online via the British Library.
  588.  
  589. Find this resource:
  590.  
  591.  
  592. Northern Liberator. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 1837–1840.
  593.  
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595.  
  596. Published in Newcastle and an important organ for Chartism in the North. Notable for its relatively high standard of journalism and for the inclusion of illustrations. Robert Blakey, its middle-class owner, closed the journal in 1840, citing financial problems, but more likely because of the prosecution of himself and his subeditor for seditious libel that year.
  597.  
  598. Find this resource:
  599.  
  600.  
  601. Poor Man’s Guardian. London, 1831–1835.
  602.  
  603. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  604.  
  605. Founded by Henry Hetherington and associated with the National Union of the Working-Classes, formed by Hetherington and Lovett to agitate for universal suffrage. Notable from 1832 onward for Bronterre O’Brien’s radical editorship and journalism. Sellers and publishers of this leading working-class unstamped paper of the Reform Bill era (including Harney) were frequently arrested, and when its premises were raided and equipment destroyed in 1835, Hetherington ceased publication.
  606.  
  607. Find this resource:
  608.  
  609.  
  610. Thompson, Dorothy, ed. Small Chartist Periodicals. Chartism: Working-Class Politics in the Industrial Revolution 5. New York and London: Garland, 1986.
  611.  
  612. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  613.  
  614. Part of a twenty-two-volume facsimile series reproducing contemporary documents of the Chartist movement in Britain, 1838–1848. Consists of facsimile reprints of The Lifeboat: A Miscellany of Politics and Literature (1844), edited by the radical clergyman William Hill (the original founder of the Northern Star); the Poor Man’s Guardian under Bronterre O’Brien’s editorship, plus his Bronterre’s National Reformer (1837); and The Democrat and Labour Advocate (1855), edited by George White.
  615.  
  616. Find this resource:
  617.  
  618.  
  619. Historical Studies
  620. The large number of historical studies of Chartism means that this list is highly selective. The disparate nature of Chartism, both geographically and temporally, perhaps means that most historical monographs and articles tend to concentrate on particular aspects of the movement, particular years, or particular regional identities. Asa Briggs, Owen Ashton, and, above all, Dorothy Thompson were the most influential 20th-century historians and loom large over the field (see also General Overviews and Essay Collections). In addition, one of the most influential single works, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, was Jones 1983, which caused considerable debate over the author’s argument about the need to reconsider class-based analyses of Chartism. Taylor 1996 and Messner 1999 survey this debate and the “linguistic turn” in Chartism and suggest new directions for the 21st century. Their articles, while aimed at specialists, offer very helpful historiographical narratives for those entering the field. London Chartism has been traditionally read as less advanced, more cautious, and more limited than that of the industrial North. Goodway 1982 sets out to complicate this narrative. Saville 1987 provided a significant reexamination of the myths of 1848, including the notion that April 1848 marked the collapse and failure of Chartism. Finn 1993 builds on this work, in a major study of post-1848 Chartism and its survival in the succeeding decades. Schwarzkopf 1991 (building on Thompson 1984, cited under General Overviews) ensured that the role of women in Chartism became part of ongoing historical work: most 21st-century publications take female Chartists into account. Hall 2007 is a good example of a recent monograph on Chartism and of the use of microhistory to investigate the broader movement. Merlin Press, Robert Hall’s publisher, is currently the leading publisher of historical and biographical works on Chartism, and for further historical studies readers are advised to consult Merlin’s Chartist Studies Series.
  621.  
  622. Finn, Margot. After Chartism: Class and Nation in English Radical Politics, 1848–1874. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
  623.  
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  625.  
  626. Reexamines the thesis that Chartism “failed” in 1848 and that working-class political engagement entered a period of decline. A convincing reassessment of the influence of Chartism on succeeding decades
  627.  
  628. Find this resource:
  629.  
  630.  
  631. Goodway, David. London Chartism, 1838–1848. Past and Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  632.  
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  634.  
  635. Careful and scholarly account of Chartism in London, containing particularly useful statistical tables showing the involvement of various trades in Chartism.
  636.  
  637. Find this resource:
  638.  
  639.  
  640. Hall, Robert Gaston. Voices of the People: Democracy and Chartist Political Identity, 1830–1870. London: Merlin, 2007.
  641.  
  642. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643.  
  644. Via the microhistory of one midsized town, Ashton-under-Lyne, Hall investigates the construction of Chartist political identity and the rise of the movement from below. Good use of detailed local history to interrogate wider perspectives on the movement.
  645.  
  646. Find this resource:
  647.  
  648.  
  649. Jones, Gareth Stedman. Languages of Class: Studies in English Working Class History, 1832–1982. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
  650.  
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  652.  
  653. “Rethinking Chartism,” chapter 3 of this study, was highly influential in the so-called linguistic turn in Chartist studies. Jones argues that rather than constructing Chartism in terms of class consciousness, historians should pay attention to the linguistic forms used by Chartists themselves, which might present a different take on Chartists’ self-construction and aims.
  654.  
  655. Find this resource:
  656.  
  657.  
  658. Messner, Andrew. “Land, Leadership, Culture, and Emigration: Some Problems in Chartist Historiography.” Historical Journal 42.4 (December 1999): 1093–1109.
  659.  
  660. DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X99008663Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  661.  
  662. Responds to Taylor 1996, qualifying his take on Chartist historiography, and through a discussion of Chartism in Victoria, Australia, argues that one area worth exploring is Chartism in the colonies. Helpful and balanced in tracing developments in research up to the 21st century.
  663.  
  664. Find this resource:
  665.  
  666.  
  667. Saville, John. 1848: The British State and the Chartist Movement. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  668.  
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  670.  
  671. In-depth reexamination of the events of 1848, countering earlier assumptions that they proved a “fiasco.” Notable for Saville’s emphasis on the relations between Chartism and the powers of the state, and his location of British revolutionary impulses in relation to France and Ireland.
  672.  
  673. Find this resource:
  674.  
  675.  
  676. Schwarzkopf, Jutta. Women in the Chartist Movement. Studies in Gender History. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1991.
  677.  
  678. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679.  
  680. Argues that gender should be seen as at least as significant as class in shaping politicized identities. Examines not only the role of women in Chartism, but also how Chartism worked to construct gender identities and relations. A valuable addition to Chartist history, though its dry style and severe emphasis on the patriarchal oppression of women have been qualified by later accounts.
  681.  
  682. Find this resource:
  683.  
  684.  
  685. Taylor, Miles. “Rethinking the Chartists: Searching for Synthesis in the Historiography of Chartism.” Historical Journal 39.2 (June 1996): 479–495.
  686.  
  687. DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X00020343Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  688.  
  689. Looks back on a “decade of disagreement” in the 1980s, particularly focusing on Thompson and Jones and attempting to show that their works are less opposed than they might seem. Useful in tracing 20th-century historiography.
  690.  
  691. Find this resource:
  692.  
  693.  
  694. Literature and Culture
  695. Chartist literature and culture have attracted a considerable amount of criticism since 1990, though much remains to be explored. Under General Works, this section lists important studies of Victorian working-class literature that have a strong bearing on Chartist studies, whether or not they are specifically concerned with self-identified Chartist writers. Individual Authors lists critical studies of particular writers linked to Chartism. Readers might also wish to consult critical work on “canonical” Victorian novels, such as those mentioned in the Introduction.
  696.  
  697. General Works
  698. Numerous studies of 19th-century working-class literature have been published, so this list selects only those that deal extensively with Chartism, or those that have had a major influence on studies of Chartist literature and culture. Vicinus 1974 is a crucial early study of working-class literature, which retains its influence in the field. Ashton and Roberts 1999 concentrates more on biography than critical analysis but is valuable for its detailed research into the backgrounds of authors with strong Chartist sympathies. Other important general studies include Haywood 2004, which concentrates primarily on fiction; Murphy 1994, which concentrates on the periodicals and on literary criticism; and Janowitz 1998, which focuses on poetry. Janowitz’s study presents a particularly notable argument about the shift away from the communal, collective poetics of Chartism in the 1840s. Sanders 2009 is an outstanding monograph on Chartist poetry and is likely to set the tone for further discussions. Schwab 1987, Sanders’s main predecessor in the field, provides valuable material but is a less accessible and well-contextualized study. Boos 2001 offers a range of different perspectives on Chartist poetics. Several articles from this special edition are listed under Individual Authors.
  699.  
  700. Ashton, Owen, and Frederick Stephen Roberts. The Victorian Working-Class Writer. New York: Mansell, 1999.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. Case studies of eight authors, including three with strong Chartist sympathies: John Bedford Leno, Ben Brierley, and John Leatherland. Focuses on how and why they became poets, rather than on the poetry itself, though a selection of poems is included in the appendices.
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Boos, Florence, ed. Special Issue: The Poetics of the Working Classes. Victorian Poetry 39.2 (Summer 2001).
  710.  
  711. DOI: 10.1353/vp.2001.0008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. This special edition contains five essays specifically on Chartist poets or poetry. These include Mike Sanders on metaphor and metonymy in Chartist poetics, Kelly Mays on Chartism and slavery, Stephanie Kuduk on Cooper, Ronald Paul on Ernest Jones, and Solveig Robinson on Chartist poetics in the popular poet Eliza Cook. A strong selection, indicative of new directions in the field.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
  716.  
  717.  
  718. Haywood, Ian. The Revolution in Popular Literature: Print, Politics, and the People, 1790–1860. Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture 44. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  719.  
  720. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  721.  
  722. Discusses the development of literature aimed at the “common reader” in the Romantic and Victorian periods, focusing particularly on fiction and didactic tales in the periodicals. Part 3 contains a chapter specifically on Chartism plus a discussion of Edward Lloyd and G. W. M. Reynolds, among others.
  723.  
  724. Find this resource:
  725.  
  726.  
  727. Janowitz, Anne F. Lyric and Labour in the Romantic Tradition. Cambridge Studies in Romanticism 30. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  728.  
  729. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  730.  
  731. Most influential in its argument that lyric was perceived and used as a communitarian, social form in the 19th century. Part 2 contains four chapters dealing extensively with Chartism, including substantial commentary on Davenport, Cooper, Jones, and Linton. An outstanding work on laboring-class poetics.
  732.  
  733. Find this resource:
  734.  
  735.  
  736. Murphy, Paul Thomas. Towards a Working-Class Canon: Literary Criticism in British Working-Class Periodicals, 1816–1858. Studies in Victorian Life and Literature. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1994.
  737.  
  738. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739.  
  740. Discusses the function of literary criticism and literature in the periodical press, including many Chartist periodicals. Valuable reassessment of the political significance of literary criticism, and useful in contextualizing specifically Chartist writings.
  741.  
  742. Find this resource:
  743.  
  744.  
  745. Sanders, Mike. The Poetry of Chartism: Aesthetics, Politics, History. Cambridge Studies in 19th-Century Literature and Culture 62. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  746.  
  747. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  748.  
  749. Excellent study, with a particularly engaging focus on the poetry column of the Northern Star. Argues that Chartist poetry played an essential role in shaping Chartist politics. Chapter 2 is useful in assessing previous work on Chartist literature.
  750.  
  751. Find this resource:
  752.  
  753.  
  754. Schwab, Ulrike. The Poetry of the Chartist Movement: A Literary and Historical Study. Studies in Social History 13. London: Kluwer, 1987.
  755.  
  756. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  757.  
  758. The first full-length study of Chartist poetics. Helpful and interesting, but Schwab’s theoretical framework and classification of poetry by genre can seem limiting. Less nuanced than Sanders 2009.
  759.  
  760. Find this resource:
  761.  
  762.  
  763. Vicinus, Martha. The Industrial Muse: A Study of Nineteenth-Century British Working-Class Literature. Croom Helm Social History Series. London: Croom Helm, 1974.
  764.  
  765. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  766.  
  767. Early and seminal study of working-class literature, highly influential on later writers. Contains one chapter specifically on Chartist poetry and fiction.
  768.  
  769. Find this resource:
  770.  
  771.  
  772. Individual Authors
  773. Chartist poets have tended to attract more critical attention than have novelists. However, Ernest Jones and G. M. W. Reynolds are beginning to receive their due. Humpherys 1983 offers a helpful introduction to Reynolds’s work, while Shirley 2008, in a collection edited by Anne Humpherys and Louis James, concentrates specifically on Reynolds’s newspaper. Ledger 2002 is an excellent assessment of Jones’s fiction centered on an argument of general relevance to Chartist literature, and Dzelzainis 2005 offers a significant reading of Jones’s gender politics. On poetry, Kuduk 2001 is a helpful investigation of Cooper’s much-admired but rarely studied (or indeed read) Purgatory of Suicides. Robinson 2001 is valuable in arguing for the inclusion of the female poet Eliza Cook in the Chartist “canon” and nicely analyzes Cook’s radical poetics. Paul 2001, from the same special issue of Victorian Poetry, considers a little-known work by Jones, prompting wider reflections on Chartism and empire. Vickers 2006 is an important article not just for its fine readings of Jones, but because of the broader implications of his discussion of Christianity in Chartist literature. On prose, Plotz 2000 is an engaging and nicely theorized consideration of Carlyle’s “Chartism.”
  774.  
  775. Dzelzainis, Ella. “Chartism and Gender Politics in Ernest Jones’s The Young Milliner.” In Famine and Fashion: Needlewomen in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Beth Harris, 87–97. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.
  776.  
  777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  778.  
  779. Uses this story from A Woman’s Wrongs to examine shifting attitudes toward gender relations and radicalism in both Jones’s work and in Chartism. A good close reading of Jones’s fiction.
  780.  
  781. Find this resource:
  782.  
  783.  
  784. Humpherys, Anne. “G. W. M. Reynolds: Popular Literature and Popular Politics.” Victorian Periodicals Review 16.3–4 (1983): 79–89.
  785.  
  786. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787.  
  788. Introductory essay containing a useful biographical account of Reynolds’s career. Analyses the reasons for his successful and unlikely combination of enormous popularity as a sensational author with radical politics.
  789.  
  790. Find this resource:
  791.  
  792.  
  793. Kuduk, Stephanie. “Sedition, Chartism, and Epic Poetry in Thomas Cooper’s ‘The Purgatory of Suicides.’” In Special Issue: The Poetics of the Working-Classes. Edited by Florence Boos. Victorian Poetry 39.2 (2001): 164–187.
  794.  
  795. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  796.  
  797. Describes how Cooper used poetic form to convert his political speeches into epic verse. Good on both form and content of Cooper’s most ambitious poem.
  798.  
  799. Find this resource:
  800.  
  801.  
  802. Ledger, Sally. “Chartist Aesthetics in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Ernest Jones, a Novelist of the People.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 57 (2002): 31–63.
  803.  
  804. DOI: 10.1525/ncl.2002.57.1.31Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  805.  
  806. Important reassessment of Jones as novelist and of Chartist popular fiction, arguing that the turn to fiction in the 1840s indicated the new need to complete with the popular press for working-class readers. Discusses De Brassier and A Woman’s Wrongs in terms of their deployment of melodrama for political ends.
  807.  
  808. Find this resource:
  809.  
  810.  
  811. Paul, Ronald. “‘In Louring Hindostan’: Chartism and Empire in Ernest Jones’s The New World: A Democratic Poem.” In Special Issue: The Poetics of the Working-Classes. Edited by Florence Boos. Victorian Poetry 39.2 (2001): 189–206.
  812.  
  813. DOI: 10.1353/vp.2001.0016Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. Makes a strong case for Jones’s importance as a Chartist poet, and reads The New World as a key poetic critique of imperialism.
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819.  
  820. Plotz, John. “Crowd Power: Chartism, Carlyle, and the Victorian Public Sphere.” Representations 70 (2000): 87–114.
  821.  
  822. DOI: 10.1525/rep.2000.70.1.01p00704Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  823.  
  824. Argues that Chartism invented the mass demonstration as a new form of speech-act, in which the presence of a crowd conveyed its demands. The second part of the essay analyzes Carlyle’s essay as a response to this shift, arguing that “Chartism” is reactionary in stripping the crowd of language and presenting it as a voiceless body.
  825.  
  826. Find this resource:
  827.  
  828.  
  829. Robinson, Solveig. “Of ‘Haymakers’ and ‘City Artisans’: The Chartist Poetics of Eliza Cook’s Songs of Labor.” In Special Issue: The Poetics of the Working-Classes. Edited by Florence Boos. Victorian Poetry 39.2 (2001): 229–254.
  830.  
  831. DOI: 10.1353/vp.2001.0017Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  832.  
  833. Argues that the popular poet (and magazine editor) Eliza Cook ought to be recognized as a significant radical poet, due to her inclusion of the language and tropes of Chartism in her poems.
  834.  
  835. Find this resource:
  836.  
  837.  
  838. Shirley, Michael H. “G. W. M. Reynolds, Reynolds’s Newspaper, and Popular Politics.” In G. W. M. Reynolds: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Politics and the Press. Edited by Anne Humpherys and Louis James, 75–90. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
  839.  
  840. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  841.  
  842. Examines Reynolds’s newspaper as the heir to the Northern Star, arguing that its popularity helped to keep the radical community alive in the late 1840s and 1850s.
  843.  
  844. Find this resource:
  845.  
  846.  
  847. Vickers, Roy. “Christian Election, Holy Communion, and Psalmic Language in Ernest Jones’s Chartist Poetry.” Journal of Victorian Culture 11 (2006): 59–83.
  848.  
  849. DOI: 10.3366/jvc.2006.11.1.59Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  850.  
  851. Excellent article on how Jones’s poems are informed by Christian language and the idea of the poet as one of the elect, despite his rejection of much organized religion as hypocritical.
  852.  
  853. Find this resource:
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