ABSTRACT
The success of the primary schools meant that the great problem of the 1890s was the organization of Secondary Education. The pressure towards it came from two directions. For the first time in history nearly everybody could read; and the demand for literature passed to the book rather than the ballad; though at the beginning the subjects dealt with were much the same—tales of Maria Martin or Spring-heeled Jack, the Bad Boys Paper or stories of the ruin of poor girls ‘told in the plainest words’—in fact, the typical ‘penny dreadfuls’.
