ABSTRACT
In its representation of how Victorian interventions into the fabric of the East End realised not only the rebuilding of the city, but also the ‘rebuilding of the poor’, Morrison’s writing is concomitantly resigned and defiant. It seems probable that Morrison’s guardedness was dictated in part by what Walter Houghton calls the ‘duty’ of the respectable. Extracting himself from his past was the Victorian manifestation of discharging his social responsibility, because, although ‘formerly had simply meant the obligation to fulfil one’s calling’, in Victorian England duty meant climbing the social ladder alone, improving society by improving oneself. The collection of Chinese and Japanese art allowed Morrison to both fully leave the East End and to contemplate, from another perspective, his contributions to literary realism. The reception of realism was a source of both amusement and disquiet to Morrison. Morrison was elected to the Royal Society of Literature in 1924.
