Class Politics in Mary Balogh’s Longing

In my memory, Longing is a beautiful story celebrating the working class. While it is absolutely anchored in details of the miners’ lives, it is far from an unapologetic defense of the working class in its struggle for political power. Instead, through Siân’s lens, we get a clear articulation of two middle-class values: every person should have the right to decide for themselves what they think and how they behave, and violence is only to be avoided, except for when the powerful need to keep the powerless in line.