Witchfinder Sargeant
VIP Member
Forgive me, how does one study English to degree level under an “expert in Dickens”* and believe that the poverty of that era is some sort of unspoken taboo?
I think we covered most aspects (including this one) of ‘Dickensian levels of poverty’ (so overused as to be a cliché, Sarah) in P7 aged 10 when we learned about the Broad St pump cholera outbreak. And if she’s interested in Jack The Ripper how can she not be aware of the working and living conditions of 1880s Whitechapel?
She’s such an ignoramus.
*ok, it appears she’s only ever read Hard Times, but I think the point stands.
She somehow studied Dickens without knowing about the debtor's prison, the blacking factory, and how those formative experiences shaped his entire life and kept him working even while he was dying, because he was deathly afraid of the money running out?