This multiplicity of factors ultimately affected most of the more traditional values and attitudes prevalent in society in the pre-industrial era. As the critic Joseph Childers has noted: "The era's most conspicuous outward signs of unprecedented material change - steam engines, factories, railroads, urbanization - denoted even greater transformations in the way people thought and acted. Received notions about everything from gender to nationalism, from class to religion, from propriety to biology were open to question. [ ] Not only were people living differently, they were thinking differently, talking and writing differently, acting differently. They were existing differently" (David 77).
The literature of this period was a key factor in the "education" of society. The developments in printing technology and the mass-production processes mentioned earlier had caused a growth in popularity and increased readership of novels. Many writers saw it as their duty to reject the romantically idealistic views of the previous era, especially of rural existence, and replace it with a realistic observation of life in various types of community. The methodology applied by the writers of this time differed considerably, dependent largely on their own motivations and intentions, which in turn was often affected by their own upbringing and place within society. However, it is also the case that societal developments created two distinct types of community: the rural and the urban. The mutual fascination between these two groups, especially within their own literate middle classes contributed greatly to the need for writers to address the issues affecting each one. At the same time, the extent of the changes ongoing in society in this period, and the issues raised as a result provided authors with a vast reservoir of subject matter. Writers seemed to feel the pressure, as never before, to raise awareness of social issues and, in some cases, to make a comment upon them.
