How far do authors gain their authority over their material and their readers in social problem fiction?

This paper intends to illustrate how authors take over their authorities in their novels, especially in social problem novels. This paper discusses two novels: Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854) and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1855). Fictional depictions of the industrial city may be successful in different ways. For writers like Elizabeth Gaskell, who lives among the people she depicts, the realistic portrayals of life are dependent on accurate and authentic knowledge. For Charles Dickens, however (Londoner), his depiction of life in Coketown is imbued with fable and fairy-tale. Both are successful, but for different reasons. Keywords: novels, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, fictional depictions, social problem How Far Do Authors Gain Their Authority over Their Material and Their Readers in Social Problem Fiction? This paper discusses about how the success of fiction written about the industrial city depends on the accuracy and authenticity of the author's detailed knowledge of urban industrial society in North and South (1855) and Hard Times (1854). These two novels almost deal with the same issues such as how the industrial city can be cruel and unjust to the poor, how people's lives could be drab and unhappy, no room for fun, imagination, and play, and concern with the lack of sympathy between the rich, industrialists, and the poor. They address the same issue, but in different ways. North and South is accurate and authentic, whereas Hard Times is a fairytale, fanciful, and magical.