Social Reform Themes · English Literature

Frances Trollope’s 'Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy' (1840) was one of the first novels to expose:

  1. The dangers of railway travel
  2. The abuses of child labor in textile mills
  3. The corruption of the British postal service
  4. The spread of cholera in rural villages
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Correct answer: The abuses of child labor in textile mills

Trollope traveled to Manchester to witness factory conditions firsthand. Her novel was part of a wave of 'Industrial Novels' that sought to humanize the statistics found in parliamentary reports.

Difficulty: Medium Question 15 of 20

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