Poorhouse Fugitives

Three traditions are represented in this anthology: a Chartist and radical literature, a Parnassian strand, and a deliberately local manner, often steeped in dialect. This is a literature poised between speech and print, between the anonymous street ballad and the literary lyric. From common themes and common failings powerful individual voices emerge; many of them have not been heard since the days of their original publication. Brian Maidment has recovered something important for the modern reader, providing a working anthology and a guide for further exploration.