Versions of Working-Class Idleness: Non-Productivity and the Critique of Victorian Workaholism

  • Benjamin Kohlmann
Chapter

Abstract

In 1844, the London publishing house of T. C. Newby published a collection of prose and poetry by the carpenter John Overs. The volume, entitled Evenings of a Working Man: Being the Occupation of his Scanty Leisure, attracted some measure of attention because it featured a preface by Overs’ mentor, Charles Dickens.1 The text that opened the book was a short historical romance written in prose. The poetry section began with a piece entitled ‘The Dodder Weed’:

As I mused in the forest, I fancied there passed

From a sad blighted tree, a proud voice to the blast;

And listening, attent if it were so indeed,

I heard, ‘Life’s all prey to the brave dodder-weed.’ ‘A most rascally creed,’ Quoth I, wroth,

’And base boasting; come! prove it, thou vile dodder-weed.’

’I spring from the earth: from the meanest of mould:

And I grovel and grasp till I’ve strength to be bold,

For I creep and caress till the noblest must feed

The prime love of self in the brave dodder-weed.’ ‘So most scoundrels proceed,’ Quoth I, wroth,

’O prolific and wide grows the vile dodder-weed.’

Keywords

Leisure Time Free Time Hard Time Original Emphasis Rational Recreation 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Benjamin Kohlmann 2014

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  • Benjamin Kohlmann

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