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The Toilers of the Field
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
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August 2, 2014
A wonderful book published after Jefferies death but made up of his thoughts and also of some of his letters to the Times in the 1870's and early 1880's. The first (and greatest) part of the book is taken up with observations on the life of agricultural labourers, men and women, their work, their habitations and their morals, and including a couple of fictional set pieces, which are designed to be a true reflection in generality of typical labourers. There is a section on the farmer himself (employer of the agricultural worker) and some letters to the Times in which he refutes arguments (unseen) sent into the Times which obviously paint the farmer in a scurrilous light.
The book is still very readable today, despite the shift in attitudes from those of the Victorian's in general. This is because Jefferies does not either patronise his subjects by treating them as charity cases with whose plight he is benevolently bringing to the attention of the public, neither does he portray them in an idealistic and romantic vein. Painters of the period heavily romanticised the idea of rural England with bucolic scenes of rosy cheeked children at play in fields or talking to a wise old grandfather in the lane. They painted idyllic cottages, which would have been far from the two-room, crowded and dirty homes of the average agricultural worker. Children and adults alike were painted as well-nourished individuals, dressed in clean and tidy clothes and obviously happy with their station in life. Here though, Jefferies talks about the hard life of the agricultural worker. Men had to rise early and work until night time in all weathers and with all manners of dirty and heavy work. Women produced large families and had all the heavy domestic chores to do and still go out and work in the fields to spend back breaking hours bending over the fields working. Children, as soon as they were old enough would be set to look after their younger siblings while their mother was in the fields, and to fetch water and make sure there was a fire going and water boiling ready for the return of the adults. Children as young as six or seven were sent out in the fields as workers also, bird scaring and gleaning.
Jefferies also talks about the men (and occasionally women too) who spent a large portion of what little wages were earned, in the pub. However, rather than censuring the habit, he tries to understand it, and does a fair job. He also touches on domestic abuse, which he thinks is more prevalent in the labouring class, who are used to rough and hard handling.
Jefferies letters to the Times were the only thing that irritated me a little as he argued that farmers were mostly too good to their workers and in their generosity to their employees, almost lived on the breadline themselves. He posited his view that agricultural workers tended to be the most ungrateful despite all the good that is done them by the farmer and landlord. This tends to contradict a little what had been said before about the agricultural worker, but can be understood to a degree as Jefferies came from a farming family and the examples he uses tend to be from his own immediate area therefore he would naturally be biased.
The second part of the book is Jefferies nature observations and a final and delightful sketch on the lions of Trafalgar Square. These are lovely pieces of prose work which although short, would be of interest to any lover of nature writing.
The book is still very readable today, despite the shift in attitudes from those of the Victorian's in general. This is because Jefferies does not either patronise his subjects by treating them as charity cases with whose plight he is benevolently bringing to the attention of the public, neither does he portray them in an idealistic and romantic vein. Painters of the period heavily romanticised the idea of rural England with bucolic scenes of rosy cheeked children at play in fields or talking to a wise old grandfather in the lane. They painted idyllic cottages, which would have been far from the two-room, crowded and dirty homes of the average agricultural worker. Children and adults alike were painted as well-nourished individuals, dressed in clean and tidy clothes and obviously happy with their station in life. Here though, Jefferies talks about the hard life of the agricultural worker. Men had to rise early and work until night time in all weathers and with all manners of dirty and heavy work. Women produced large families and had all the heavy domestic chores to do and still go out and work in the fields to spend back breaking hours bending over the fields working. Children, as soon as they were old enough would be set to look after their younger siblings while their mother was in the fields, and to fetch water and make sure there was a fire going and water boiling ready for the return of the adults. Children as young as six or seven were sent out in the fields as workers also, bird scaring and gleaning.
Jefferies also talks about the men (and occasionally women too) who spent a large portion of what little wages were earned, in the pub. However, rather than censuring the habit, he tries to understand it, and does a fair job. He also touches on domestic abuse, which he thinks is more prevalent in the labouring class, who are used to rough and hard handling.
Jefferies letters to the Times were the only thing that irritated me a little as he argued that farmers were mostly too good to their workers and in their generosity to their employees, almost lived on the breadline themselves. He posited his view that agricultural workers tended to be the most ungrateful despite all the good that is done them by the farmer and landlord. This tends to contradict a little what had been said before about the agricultural worker, but can be understood to a degree as Jefferies came from a farming family and the examples he uses tend to be from his own immediate area therefore he would naturally be biased.
The second part of the book is Jefferies nature observations and a final and delightful sketch on the lions of Trafalgar Square. These are lovely pieces of prose work which although short, would be of interest to any lover of nature writing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review