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'Until fairly recently, Britain had an amazingly vital autodidact culture, where a large minority of the working classes passionately pursued classic literature, philosophy, and music...they knew that the "great books"...would emancipate the workers.' https://www.city-journal.org/html/classics-slums-12823.html
'Will Crooks (b. 1852), a cooper living in extreme poverty in East London, once spent tuppence on a secondhand Iliad, and was dazzled: "What a revelation it was to me!
'Nancy Sharman (b. 1925) recalled that her mother, a Southampton charwoman, had no time to read until her last illness, at age 54. Then she devoured the complete works of Shakespeare, and "mentioned pointedly to me that if anything should happen to her...
she wished to donate the cornea of her eyes to enable some other unfortunate to read.'
'On company time& 1/2 mile below the surface, Notts collier G. A. W. Tomlinson (b. 1872) read The Canterbury Tales, Lamb's Essays, The Origin of Species, and Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol.'
'On company time& 1/2 mile below the surface, Notts collier G. A. W. Tomlinson (b. 1872) read The Canterbury Tales, Lamb's Essays, The Origin of Species, and Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol.'
While studying Greek philosophy at night, Joseph Keating performed one of the toughest and worst-paid jobs in the mine: shoveling out tons of refuse...
'Lancashire weaver Elizabeth Blackburn (b. 1902)...When she went to work in the mills she memorized, by the rhythm of the looms, Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," Milton's "Lycidas," and Gray's Elegy.'
'Among the same audience, classical music was as popular as classic literature. A century ago one might hear, over the roar of machinery, ironworkers chanting the Pilgrims' Chorus from Tannhäuser, or weavers rehearsing Messiah or Elijah.'
What a great essay. Call me a romantic, but it makes me really sad when working class people are patronised with the assumption that they can't develop an appetite for, enjoy, benefit from, and be ennobled by great literature, music, art and, dare I say, theology.
