The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strained

The Recording Angel

by Edwin Arnold BRENHOLTZ (1859 - 1953)

"The Recording Angel," by Edwin Arnold Brenholtz, is one of the earliest examples of an American proletarian novel, a work intended to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. The story's themes of economic inequality between producers and consumers, political collusion within the upper classes, and the loss of the middle class ring particularly true today, especially in a global context. Billed as a "romance of the future," the plot of this fictional account of class struggle between workingmen and trust magnates of the new industrial economy hinges on a unique electric machine, which did not exist in 1905, but is quite common today. Besides writing at least four books, the author was a prolific poet and frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review. He corresponded with a variety of personalities, including the poet Edwin Markham, labor leaders Theodore and Eugene Debs, controversial activist and minister George D. Herron, and writer Samuel Clemens. - Summary by Andru Bemis

Listen next episodes of The Recording Angel:
A Consistent Liar Is the Devil Incarnate (Part 2) , The Telling Of It All Lets In a Flood Of Light (Part 2) , A Consistent Liar Is the Devil Incarnate (Part 1) , Beyond the Infinite and Boundless Reach Of Mercy , But When To Mischief Mortals Bend Their Will , Do Them - Or They'll Do You , Dust To Dust! Ashes To Ashes , For, Some Days Must Be Dark and Dreary , He Laughs Best Who Laughs Last , I Cannot Tell What You and Other Men Think , It Is the Unexpected That Happens , It's An Ill Wind That Blows No One Any Good , Life Is a Disease Of Which Sleep Relieves Us , Oh, What a Fall Was There, My Countrymen , The Best Laid Plans Of Mice and Men , The Devil Incarnate Would Still Be Partly Human , The Massive Gates Of Circumstance , The Recording Angel Causes All the Trouble , The Telling Of It All Lets In a Flood Of Light (Part 1) , There Are Several Ways To Kill a Cat , There Are Swift Hours In Life , Till We Meet Again , Why the World Are All Thinking About It