The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

A house painter in the Edwardian seaside town of Mugsborough sits down to a tea of bread and dripping, while his employers cheat the customers and the customers cheat the painters. Robert Tressell, an Irish housepainter who died of tuberculosis in 1911 before the book ever appeared in print, drew the title from his rage at workmen who labour in rags so their masters may dine in silk.