The Great English Novelist of 1832

In April 1832, while the British lords in the House of Lords argued endlessly over the Parliamentary Reform Act, an unknown man named George Wilson pushed open the doors of Britain's literary world with a British version of The Overcoat, launching a merciless attack on bureaucracy... A century later, as British historians looked back on the literary and intellectual history of the nineteenth century, they wrote these passionate words. “...He was the source of nineteenth-century literature, the man who forged the conscience of Victorian literature. Beginning with The Overcoat, he ushered in critical realism, and was regarded as a mentor by Dickens and Thackeray... “...He introduced the holistic perspective of the ‘longue durée,’ rewriting the histories of Greece and Britain through a holistic lens. He sparked a revolution in historiography, transforming history from a hymn to heroes into an anatomy of social structures. “...He returned to Europe's tradition of social contract theory, using the ‘original position’ to revise Bentham's utilitarianism and redefine justice. He profoundly influenced Britain's two-party politics, embedding his ideas in the social fabric of Victorian society. He shaped the fundamental beliefs of modern Britons, and even of modern society as a whole. “... “That was not the Victorian Age. It was the Age of George Wilson!”