Tradefull Merchants: the Portrayal of the Capitalist in Literature

This study of the portrayal of the capitalist in English literature over the past 500 years is valuable for its rich and detailed documentation (especially the fascinating unfamiliar quotations from less-known works), rather than for any new or profound cultural analysis. Questions of literary form or intended audience are largely ignored. Nevertheless it demonstrates in a thought- provoking way how over this long time-span our literature has more often than not shown hostility to capitalists and traders (by whose activities the society appears to live), though usually in favour of the life-style of landowning aristocrats and gentlemen-scholars, financed by the capitalism it criticises.