ABSTRACT
It is important to distinguish between the quantitative and qualitative judgements being made by Orwell. On the one hand, it is simply untrue that the urban working classes ('the people who make the wheels go round') have always been ignored by novelists. There is, in fact, a considerable body of English fiction which deals with, or purports to deal with, not merely the exceptions acknowledged by Orwell but 'the ordinary town proletariat'. In the Victorian period alone there were some hundreds of novels written on this very subject. On the other hand, Orwell's objection to the presentation of the working classes 'when they do find their way between the covers of a book', while a slight exaggeration, is
morejust.FortherearefewEnglishnovelswhichdealwith working-classcharactersinaworking-classenvironmentinthe samesenseastherearenovelsaboutthemiddleorupperclasses intheirownrecognizablyrealsettings:inotherwords,novels whichtreatoftheworkingclassasbeingcomposedofordinary humanbeingswhoexperiencetherangeoffeelingsandemotions, socialaspirationsandphysicalrelationships,thatitisthespecial provinceofthenovelisttoexplore.
