"A less sane man would—as many men, indeed, have done—have set out to harass us, and laid the horror and the sentiment on so thick that the reader would have revolted against the misrepresentation of life. Tressall, on the other hand, sticks—as far as his workmen are concerned—to the facts; does not sentimentalise over his characters; and succeeds, consequently, in "getting there." We recommend the book to everyone, and it will do especial good to those who have an inadequate conception of what workmen in general and men in the building trade in particular have to put up with (a) when employed and (b) when unemployed. But it should be avoided by all those innocent journalists who seem to hold that the word Mr. Shaw uses in Pygmalion should be reserved for the private use of themselves and their friends."
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The New Statesman (25 April 1914), p. 88
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Tressell
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Robert Tressell
Robert Phillipe Noonan (17 April 1870 – 3 February 1911), born Robert Croker, and best known by the pen name Robert Tressell, was an Irish writer best known for his novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.
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