The Poor Man
An Interwar Social Satire of Poverty, Conscience, Displacement, and Outsiders in a Changing Imperial WorldBy Stella Benson
Length6h 52m
About this audiobook
Stella Benson's The Poor Man is a socially observant, imaginatively unsettling novel that examines poverty not merely as an economic condition but as a moral and psychological structure imposed upon modern life. Characteristically blending realism with irony, fantasy, and the grotesque, Benson exposes the assumptions through which respectable society defines value, success, and human worth. The book belongs to the experimental literary culture of the interwar period, when novelists were challenging Victorian moral certainties and conventional narrative forms; its tonal shifts and satirical perspective make social criticism inseparable from literary invention. Rather than offering poverty as a sentimental spectacle, Benson presents it as a condition entangled with class privilege, gendered expectations, and the failures of public compassion. Benson (1892–1933) was an English novelist, essayist, and committed pacifist whose life was shaped by political dissent, feminist sympathies, and extensive residence abroad, particularly in Burma and China. Her experience of imperial societies and rapidly changing postwar cultures sharpened her distrust of inherited hierarchies and encouraged the cosmopolitan, humane skepticism evident in her fiction. The Poor Man reflects an author alert to the distance between benevolent ideals and social realities. This book will reward readers interested in interwar modernism, feminist social criticism, and fiction that uses wit and imaginative distortion to reveal uncomfortable truths. It is especially valuable for those seeking a subtler, less canonical account of class and conscience in twentieth-century literature.
Audiobook details
GenreGeneral Fiction, Humor
Length6 hrs 52 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 6, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages (Annotated)
7CHAPTER FIVE
2KWAN-YIN, GODDESS OF MERCY
8CHAPTER SIX
3CHAPTER ONE
9CHAPTER SEVEN
4CHAPTER TWO
10CHAPTER EIGHT
5CHAPTER THREE
11CHAPTER NINE
Show all chaptersShow less
6CHAPTER FOUR
More from Stella Benson
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
ShivajiRanjit Desai25h 13m4.6 (3.1K)$24 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Lost In TranslationAudrey Davis9h 15m4.4 (235)Free
Woman UninterruptedBrodie Kane7h 1m4.6 (562)$24 · $0.00
1984 & Animal Farm (Annotated)George Orwell15h 54m4.5 (220.8K)$1.99 · $0.00
Kingsblood Royal (Annotated)Sinclair Lewis14h 42m4.6 (264)$2 · $0.00
This Is Going to HurtAdam Kay5h 47m4.4 (444.7K)$24 · $0.00
You Will Get Through This NightDaniel Howell6h 56m4.4 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Northanger Abbey (Annotated)Jane Austen10h 7m4.5 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
My Dear HamiltonStephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie23h 7m4.4 (63.6K)$46 · $0.00
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS & SCREWTAPE PROPOSES A TOAST (Annotated)C. S. Lewis5h 6m4.4 (471K)$2 · $0.00
BufferingHannah Hart5h 55m4.4 (12.4K)$24 · $0.00
The Office BFFsJenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey8h 26m4.3 (45.4K)$26 · $0.00
The Collected Stories of Dorothy ParkerDorothy Parker8h 36m4.3 (13.6K)$1 · $0.00
LambChristopher Moore15h 22m4.3 (211.3K)$33 · $0.00
The Importance of Being Earnest (World's Classics Series)Oscar Wilde4h 10m4.3 (467.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
#IMomSoHardKristin Hensley, Jen Smedley7h 19m4.3 (7.3K)$24 · $0.00
Mixed PlateJo Koy8h 18m4.3 (7.1K)$26 · $0.00
Over the TopJonathan Van Ness5h 50m4.3 (87.3K)$24 · $0.00
It Never EndsTom Scharpling8h 53m4.4 (2.3K)$20 · $0.00
More Tales of the CityArmistead Maupin8h 23m4.3 (22.6K)$26 · $0.00
The Complete Provincial Lady Series - All 5 Novels in One Edition (Illustrated Edition)E. M. Delafield26h 33m4.3 (2.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
You may also like
The Confidence-ManHerman Melville10h 27m3.7 (5.8K)$23
The Confidence-ManHerman Melville10h 38m3.6 (12.6K)$2 · $0.00
Coco ChanelJustine Picardie11h4.0 (6.2K)$29 · $0.00
Think and Grow RichNapoleon Hill8h 49m4.3 (519.4K)$1 · $0.00
The Four MillionO Henry6h 9m4.0 (1.7K)$20 · $0.00
DalíEric Shanes1h 15m4.3 (257)$8 · $0.00
The Confidence-Man His MasqueradeHerman Melville10h 34m3.7 (5.7K)$2.30
Dream Tales and Prose PoemsIvan Sergeevich Turgenev6h 56m4.1 (274)$2.30 · $0.00
Ninety-Nine Stories of GodJoy Williams1h 56m3.7 (3.1K)$10 · $0.00
The Alice Behind WonderlandSimon Winchester2h 44m3.7 (1K)$18 · $0.00
In a German PensionKatherine Mansfield3h 47m3.8 (1.9K)$20
Is Shakespeare Dead?Mark Twain2h 57m3.9 (2K)$7 · $0.00
Marilyn MonroeDonald Spoto22h 43m4.2 (2.8K)$30
This Is Not A Book About Benedict CumberbatchTabitha Carvan6h 29m4.0 (5.5K)$24 · $0.00
EthicsAristotle10h 43m4.1 (212.6K)$2.30
The DeadJames Joyce1h 26m4.1 (28K)$6 · $0.00
Buried AliveArnold Bennett5h 52m3.8 (708)$6 · $0.00
The Absurdities of Being an Actor - A Quietly Brutal Guide to Waiting Rooms, Almosts, and Still Showing UpMax Paradox3h 24m$7.70 · $0.00
THE LADY IN REDJESSICA TAYLOR54m4.0 (26) Only with Ultra
Studies and Essays: Concerning LettersJohn Galsworthy1h 31m$2 · $0.00