‘I think you’d strike’: Interpreting Preston in <i>The Strike</i>

The literary aftermath of the Preston lock-out has been dominated by Charles Dickens’s Hard Times (1854) and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1854–1855). Far less well known is The Strike , an anonymous tale published in 1855 by the Oxford publishing firm John Henry Parker. This article explores the relationships between The Strike and the ‘industrial novel’ (particularly Hard Times and North and South ) as well as comparing their respective handling of the historical reality of the Preston lock-out. It analyses the similarities and differences in the literary handling of the lock-out across all three texts and argues that, in terms of historical verisimilitude, The Strike generally demonstrates a greater degree of historical accuracy than either of its better-known counterparts. Additionally, it argues that the tale’s interest in co-operation suggests an author with Christian Socialist affiliations and, in its closing paragraphs, offers circumstantial evidence pointing to the Rev. Charles Marriott as a potential author of The Strike .