The Real Oliver Twist: Robert Blincoe: A life that Illuminates a Violent Age

by John Waller

Robert Blincoe's political, personal and turbulent story illuminates the Dickensian age like never before. His life provides an outstanding example of courage and a refusal to be downtrodden.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Associate Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan
Field: 18th century, 19th Century, Science/Medicine, Social
Region: Europe & Russia, United States

Reviews

[G.J. Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

It became very apparent, very soon, that this book was going to be about much more than Robert Blincoe’s life. He is indeed the subject at the centre of the book but there is also much in it about the history of the social conditions endured by the workers during the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Waller concentrates mainly on the north of England and the children effectively enslaved as “apprentices” to masters who owned the very many mills of the time. There are comprehensive notes and a full bibliography for a reader’s further reference if required and a great amount of the book’s narrative informs readers about the prevailing political approaches to the growing wealth of the country. Indeed it becomes clear that profit and growth were most commonly thought to be at the forefront of the aims and objectives of the politicians of the 19th and 18th centuries. This gave the entrepreneurs free licence to support or ignore some of the inhuman and barbaric practices taking place in their factories and mills, both large and small businesses.

While taking into account many of the intricate and complicated academic details contained in Waller’s book, I also found it impossible not to gasp and wipe away an occasional tear when learning of some of the horrific injuries inflicted, through cruel treatment from overseers, upon young Blincoe and other child workers. It becomes apparent further into the book that Robert Blincoe had a determined and indomitable spirit that was quite rare amongst his kind. He achieved some success in his business life and eventually in his social standing. This is also reflected through the ambitions and outstanding advancement of his son, a reputable clergyman, also called Robert. This very readable book is completely engrossing and highly recommended to anyone interested in history and/or stories of triumph over disadvantage.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will break your heart at the cruelty Blincoe suffered and endured from a tiny child until he could get away. Unimaginable pain, torture and suffering in the mills. And yet, and yet, he grew up without bitterness or hatred. just a steadfast determination that no child of his would ever have to go and work the mills, as he once had to. The power of the human spirit to survive against all odds and triumph as he did, is truly astonishing. I cried buckets reading this biography. Sometimes it was almost too painful to read. but i am glad i did, and would wholly recommend this book to anyone.

[Madeleine McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could have labeled this horror, because of the misuse of these children was real and horrid. Robert Blincoe was an amazing man, his spirit was never broken by the mill owners who beat and starved him so that he grew up deformed. This is truly a book of the horrors of child slavery in England but also of triumph of this particular man. Fascinating, if painful, history.

[Kane Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant read and an incredible story for anyone interested in social history. Incredible how the widespread vested interests in the cotton mills allowed a blind eye, or worse, to be turned to what was going on. Thé name of Robert Blincoe should be a prominent one in our history.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another of my chance reads, a book passed to me by a volunteer colleague as an element of interest , given we volunteer at what used to be for 100 years till around 1896, a flaxmill.

I was totally absorbed into this book from the beginning, it was a very thorough and researched story not just of Robert Blincoe, "the real Oliver Twist" but the whole era of textile mills, the workouses, the politics and politicians, and how changes in the way mill workers especially children were so badly treated yet changes in legislation to help them did not happen for decades as the working conditions were not fully believed either by society or the politicians. Very much an eye opener into the past

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark and informative book about the Satanic Mills. Shocking.