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…
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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 04 December 2024.]