Literature and poverty : from the Hebrew Bible to the Second World War / David Aberbach.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Biblical ideals to secular realities -- The "holy poor" and its desecrations: -- From the Hebrew Bible to the French Revolution -- The Bbible and the poor: law and literature -- The medieval transformation: the unholy poor in literature and poor law -- Sixteenth-century English nationalism: poor law, scripture and Shakespeare -- From Shakespeare to Wordsworth: the rediscovery of Biblical love for the poor -- Poverty in the West and the failure of ideologies, 1789-1939 -- Industry, revolution and the poor -- Germinal: peasants and literature in England, Russia and France -- Jews in Eastern Europe 1861-1917: degradation and recovery -- Hunger-artists: from Pushkin to Orwell -- Poverty, literature and the environment -- The end of extreme poverty in the West: interwar Italy and America.