Workers' Tales

Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain

Michael Rosen

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780691175348
• eBook ISBN: 9780691185392

A collection of political tales—first published in British workers' magazines—selected and introduced by acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres—the fairy tale, fable, allegory, parable, and moral tale—and penned by a range of lesser-known and celebrated authors, including Schalom Asch, Charles Allen Clarke, Frederick James Gould, and William Morris, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages—and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children's literature for the middle class. In Workers' Tales, acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than forty of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

Throughout, the tales in this collection exemplify themes and ideas related to work and the class system, sometimes in wish-fulfilling ways. In "Tom Hickathrift," a little, poor person gets the better of a gigantic, wealthy one. In "The Man Without a Heart," a man learns about the value of basic labor after testing out more privileged lives. And in "The Political Economist and the Flowers," two contrasting gardeners highlight the cold heart of Darwinian competition. Rosen's informative introduction describes how such tales advocated for contemporary progressive causes and countered the dominant celebration of Britain's imperial values. The book includes archival illustrations, biographical notes about the writers, and details about the periodicals where the tales first appeared.

Provocative and enlightening, Workers' Tales presents voices of resistance that are more relevant than ever before.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Tales
• An Old Fable Retold
• Fables for the Times—I: The Monkeys and the Nuts
• Fables for the Times—II: The Political Economist and the Flowers
• Aristos and Demos
• A Dream of Queer Fishes (A Modern Prose Idyll)
• Chips
• Nobody’s Business
• The History of a Giant: Being a Study in Politics for Very Young Boys
• The Man without a Heart
• A Terrible Crime
• Tom Hickathrift
• Jack Clearhead: A Fairy Tale for crusaders, and to be read by them to their fathers and mothers
• The Four Friends: A Translation
• The Princesses
• The New Shilling
• The Harebell’s Sermon
• Little Red Riding Hood
• A Mystery
• Odin and his One Eye
• The Elves and Fairies
• A Monkey Story
• Elfhome (Charlie’s Garden)
• A Fairy Tale for Tired Socialists
• The Golden Egg
• When Death Crossed the Threshold
• The Doll Shop
• The Scarlet Shoes. (The Story of a Serio-comic Walking Tour and its Tragic End.)
• He, She, and It
• An Idyll of the Dover Road. A True Story
• His Sister. A Little Spangle of Real Life
• “Happy Valley.” A Fairy Tale
• The Peasants and the Parasites. A Fable
• The Eternal Feminine
• The Myopians’ Muddle
• A Martian’s Visit to Earth. Being a Literal Translation into English of the Preface to an Account by a Martian of his Visit to England
• Nightmare Bridge
• The Fool and the Wise Man
• The May-Day Festival in the Year 1970
• Mary Davis; or the Fate of a Proletarian Family. A Lesson Given to the Glasgow S.L.P. Socialist Sunday School
• The Lost Vision. A Spring Fantasy
• The Aerial Armada. What Took Place in A.D. 2000
• Mr. Prowser-Wowser
• Behind the Wall
• Alice in Sunderland. A Baffling Mystery
• It Can’t Be Done! A History of Impossibilities
• Notes
• References
• Notes on Authors
• Notes on Journals