Harriet Martineau, Illustrations of Political Economy

Valerie Sanders (University of Hull)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Domains

Political Science

Dates

First circulation or publication 1832 - 1834

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Didactic
Essays/ Lectures (any)
Story Collection

Resources

Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-4) are a series of twenty-four didactic short tales (with a further volume of summary) whose publication brought her instant success and public notoriety as a writer. In Volume I of her Autobiography (1877; rpt 2007) she tells the extraordinary story of how she battled to find a publisher, convinced that the public “needed” the series which was designed to teach the principles of political economy by means of illustrative stories set in a variety of social communities. Charles Fox, the publisher who finally accepted the work, was gloomy about its prospects, and imposed harsh terms, which included a requirement that she find subscribers to back her project. In the event, the series caught the mood of the times with its earnest and utilitarian message. As Martineau recalls in...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1528 words

Citation: Sanders, Valerie. "Illustrations of Political Economy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 January 2004; last revised 19 April 2024. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9840, accessed 05 December 2025.]