ABSTRACT
It is significant that the narrative is seen by Barker as dealing with lower-middle-class urban life. He is referring only to the two central male figures, Osmond Waymark and Julian Casti, whereas the text
deals extensively with the urban working class: Lotty and Ida Starr and other unnamed prostitutes; the reformed prostitute turned shopgirl Sally Fisher; the degenerate shop-assistant Harriet Smales and her depraved crony, Mrs Sprowl; the violent, alcoholic Slimy; the property shark, Abraham Woodstock, and others. Barker’s myopic perception of the class involved must rest on the persistent identification of the narrator with Waymark effected by the recurrent adoption of his viewpoint.
