This is the first book to bring together research on the life and work of Margaret Harkness; a writer, activist, and traveller at the forefront of literary innovation and social change at the turn of the twentieth century. Fusing recently uncovered biographical information with rich contextual detail, it illuminates the extensive career of a writer committed to exposing the exploitation of individuals and the plight of marginalised communities worldwide. 

The critical essays in this collection range from new considerations of Harkness’s well-known novels to examinations of her lesser-known periodical fiction and journalism, her relationship with contemporaries such as Olive Schreiner and W. T. Stead, and her time abroad in Australia and India. Its multidisciplinary approach brings together the work of leading scholars of nineteenth-century literary, cultural, and political criticism, and gives substance to women’s social engagement and political involvement in a socially turbulent period that saw significant developments in political and literary practice as activists and writers sought to address the conditions of the working poor. Indispensable for any student of London literature, and relevant to researchers of social, political, and literary history, this volume enriches critical understanding of the complex and dynamic world of the long nineteenth century.