Ragged edge  Robert Tressell was guilty of the sin of despair.
The political novel is rarely an unqualified literary triumph.
Novels of political life cannot deal convincingly with political
ideas. Plantagenet Palliser rises from backbencher to prime
minister over the course of Trollope's six volumes with only one
act of parliament to his credit. Novels of political ideas -
unless they are set in imaginary worlds, which makes them
science fiction - sacrifice plot, character and dialogue in
order to argue the case that is their ideological theme. So it
is with The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Judged purely as a
work of fiction, it lacks all distinction. And its arguments -
although driven home with a repetitive intensity which was meant
to make new converts - are so crudely simplistic that they are
likely to appeal only to readers who share the author's beliefs
before they open the book.  Yet, 100 years after Robert
Tressell's death, his story of the downtrodden painters and
decorators of Mugsborough ret