Hermione and the Ragged Trousered House Elves

[sylviablundell2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 77001

Has anyone out there read Robert Tressell's great book The Ragged 
Trousered Philanthropists?  The attitude of the house elves is 
precisely that of the working-class characters the hero, Frank Owen, 
is trying to help.  Tressell calls them "philantropists" because they 
are happy to give away the fruits of their labours to their "betters" 
who are happy to exploit them. "House elves has no right to be 
unhappy when there is work to be done and masters to be served" 
forsooth!! Admitted Hermione goes about it in a rather ham-fisted 
way, but I prefer her attitude to Ron's, who doesn't give a damn 
about house-elves, so long as they get a decent breakfast on the 
table at the right time.
P.S. An earlier poster thought the book was about the nobility of the 
working class.  It's nothing of the kind.  Say rather sheer 
breathtaking stupidity and poverty of ambition.