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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

By: Robert Tressell
Narrated by: Stephen Twigg, Tony Robinson
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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, first published in 1914, is a highly celebrated and surprisingly modern novel that since first publication has won many followers. Rooted in socialist ideals, it was voted amongst the nation's top 100 books in the BBC Big Read. It tells the story of a group of decorators who cope reasonably with their impoverished life until one of them, Frank Owen, hands out regular attacks on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalists who themselves "do nothing". But Owen's words fall on deaf ears as the working men believe that there is nothing they can do about their lot. That is until the 'posher' Barrington takes up the cudgels with Owen as they fight for a fairer Britain.

Peopled with credible characters and rich in evocative speeches, the novel lends itself naturally to the Spoken Word medium. This newly abridged audio version concentrates on the social and political issues with particular relevance to today's society. Celebrated British actor Tony Robinson, himself an active member of the Labour Party narrates, and Stephen Twigg - then MP features as the voice of Barrington.

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Critic reviews

"The audiobook works brilliantly."
"A torch to pass from generation to generation."
All stars
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Either I have just wasted five hours or I've just save 20 hours. I can't make my mind up which. This is an abridged version of the novel, so without knowing the full version I don't know whether this is the 'best bits' or just the socialist manifesto extracted from it. The choice of Tony Robinson narrating works on one level, he has the right voice for the character, but my association of him with Baldrick did put me off as at times it was as if Baldrick was explaining one of his cunning plans. I don't know who the narrator for Barrington was, but having a second narrator come in 3/4 the way through didn't work for me and the voice didn't fit. I found it hard to pick up the story in between the lengthy socialist tracts, so overall I felt that this version may not have done the full book justice. On the other hand, if the full book is just a lengthier version of this, I'm glad I save the extra 20 hours involved in listening to it!

History according to Baldrick

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Great story and a really great telling of it. Crazy to think this was written so many years ago. Just shows how little has changed within the human mind compared compared to technology. Scary to think where the human race will end up!

Great story

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wonderful, ironic and sad. This book is a testament of exploitation and miss judged ideas. I'm alright Jack.

wonderful

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An abridged version of a book that still resonates and remains very thought provoking. Robinson excellent though having an actual MP do the speeches is a little stiff!

Timely as well as historically interesting

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Magnificently read and well paced, this audio book is a real eye opener to anyone seeking to learn of socialist motives and ideals, i can only echo that an abridged version of a book is always a shame, but i didn't feel it detracted from it too much, i highly recommend this.

An excellent book

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