The nineteenth century was an era of great change for the inhabitants of the British Isles. These transformations were only the backdrop for further social change born in class conflict and various demands for equality before the law. As industrialization in general accelerated forms of material production, writers expressed their creativity in experimental, innovative literary forms. Narratives of self-invention achieved prominence while tradition was mined in an effort to adjust to the disorienting advent of modernity. Popular genres—notably the domestic novel and a new colloquial poetry of everyday life—gained influence and prestige. Accordingly, several English writers produced literary texts that became precedents of the future of the literary world.