The Early Life of John Halifax [antikvár]

Introduction The Early Life oj John Halijax is retold from John Halifax, Gentleman, which was first published in 1857. Its authoress, Mrs Craik (alsó called Dinah Mulock), lived from 1826 to 1887. No other book of hers is still widely read. This story covers the years from about 1790 to 1800. For most of that time, in the years following the French Revolution, England was at war with Francé; during this period, which was that of the Industrial Revolution, machines were becoming more widely used in factories and were displacing many workers. Because of that, and bad harvests, and difficulties created by the war, there was often great discontent among the people. Chapter Five in this book shows how that discontent affected even the smallest villages. During the earüer stages of the Industrial Revolution, many among the upper classes of society considered that a man could not be a gentleman if he earned his living by trade or manufacturing. A gentleman, they thought, was a man whose money came from the rents of property, or one who belonged to certain professions such as the Church, or else was an officer in the Army or Navy. People who had such views refused to meet 'tradesmen', as they called those who owned or managed factories, since, by so doing, they felt they would dishonour themselves. They alsó thought that no tradesman should dress himself well