Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Robert Tressell was the non de plume of Robert Noonan who was born in Dublin in 1870 and whose famous novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists remains one of the most authentic pieces of working class literature ever produced. It has been read by world leaders and is staple reading material for British Labour politicians and anyone else who wants answers to the age old question of why is it that ordinary families the world over constantly struggle in poverty while a few people at the top get richer at the expense of vast the majority of humanity?
The novel was written in a common language in the hope that it would be read and enjoyed by intellectuals and working people alike and the writing provokes in the reader responses of laughter, melancholy and anger but most importantly of all it will make you think and could forever change your world view. By reading this book we learn that working people were as divided in Robert Noonan's time as they are today and while a lot has changed in the years since, some things doggedly remain the same
One hundred years later in modern Ireland there are many people living in poverty and elderly people are staying in bed longer because they can't afford to heat themselves. This winter it is expected that there will be record numbers dying from hypothermia because the system has no interest in conquering poverty
Time has proved this to be the case and for those wondering why this state of affairs continues to be passed off as normal this book will contain some answers as it makes a mockery of the stupidity, greed and ignorance that is all around us in what we laughingly think of as an advanced and civilised society. The questions Robert Noonan came up with one hundred years ago are still relevant today because they have never been properly answered
Robert Noonan wrote his world famous novel near the end of his life while suffering from tuberculosis and there are parallels with George Orwell who was also gravely ill and reclusive when he wrote 1984, the classic political novel describing a world gone mad and which is beyond our comprehension. As a piece of literature The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is right up there with anything George Orwell wrote but it does not make such bleak and depressing reading as Orwell's accounts of the grim industrial wastelands of north of England in the 1930s. For one thing the novel is set in the genteel southern coastal town of Hastings and is full of humour and humanity. The environment may be different but the core problems addressed in the book are universal and easily identifiable by working people the world over
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is partly the story of Robert Noonan and it is told through the voice of Frank Owen who like Noonan is a sign writer and house decorator. The story is set at the turn of the 20th century and tells of the lives of a group of painters and decorators who are living hand to mouth and never more than a whisker away from the workhouse or destitution. By necessity these men are all prisoners to the bosses and foremen of the local firms who they rely on for bits and pieces of work which can literally make all the difference between being able to eat or going hungry
The bosses rule the town through fear and the workers have become so used to being constantly afraid that they can't even use their powers of reasoning to surmise that there is something unfair about the situation. Their infantilism and automatic deference to authority makes them slaves living in a state of mortal terror and who actually believe that their masters superiority is fitting and unquestionable:
"It's Their Land," "It's Their Water," "It's Their Coal," "It's Their Iron," so you would say "It's Their air," "These are Their gasometers, and what right have the likes of us to expect them to let us breathe for nothing?"
The Life and Times of Robert Noonan
After the death of his father Robert Noonan's mother remarried and took him and three siblings to live with their step father. For Robert this was an unhappy time because he was still mourning the death of his father and he could not take to his step father (who was an absentee landlord) and to distance himself from his step father Robert adopted his Mother's maiden name, Noonan, and left the home at a young age without so much as having completing his education or entering into a craft apprenticeship
In the 1890s Robert emigrated to South Africa where at first he wrote pieces for newspapers and then later earned a reputation as a highly skilled craftsman decorator and a brilliant sign writer. He thought of himself as a skilled artisan and believed in the ethic of the craftsman honouring his skill by doing a job properly and to the best of his ability
Although from a middle class background he was aware that he was different from the working class labourers and tradesmen he worked with each day but with his intellectual advantage and socialist beliefs he believed that these men could empower themselves through education and by becoming organised. The book tells us that this ideal is a hard one to achieve not least of all due to the ignorance of the workers who insist on believing that there has always been rich and poor and that there always will be. They vote for a system which works against their interests and feel proud of the conservative and liberal labels they use to display their political alliances
Robert became politically active in South Africa and became a member of the Johannesburg Trades and Labour Council and the Cape's pro Boer anti British Irish nationalist brigades. He married in South Africa and with his wife Elizabeth he had a daughter, Kathleen, with whom he eventually returned to Britain after Elizabeth's death in 1895. In England Robert's health was failing and his and Kathleen's eventual poverty ridden existence in a run down rented flat, along with his experiences in South Africa were to provide most of the material for the book
I hope this wonderful book enriches your life as it did mine
Get The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
You can Download the book in electronic format for free at Project Gutenberg. It is a long book (the Penguin edition is over 700 pages long) so you might prefer to order a hard copy using the links below