The History of Mr Polly

First published in 1910, this comic novel follows Alfred Polly, a draper's assistant who reads cheap romance, stumbles into marriage with Miriam Larkins, and is trapped in a failing shop in the town of Fishbourne. Indigestion, debt, and a life that will not match his inner talk push him toward a desperate act involving fire, after which he walks away and finds a quieter berth at a riverside inn, where a last bully must still be faced. Lower-middle-class counters, kitchens, and lanes are the setting. The book is a novel of escape from a mismatched livelihood, not a political tract.

Bound in white cloth with a repeat pattern in black, red leather spine-label. Dark grey slipcase.