37? M. ?/« VICTORIAN IDEOLOGY AND BRITISH CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, 1850-1914 DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Ann Trugman Ackerman, M.A, Denton, Texas December, 1984 a £. Ackerman, Ann Trugman. Victorian Ideology and British Children's Literature. Doctor of Philosophy (History). December, 1984. 369 pp., 11 illustrations, bibliography, 386 titles. This dissertation shows the ideas of Victorian England, 1850-1914, as reflected in Victorian children's literature. To establish the validity of studying children's literature as a guide to the Victorian age, it was necessary first to show that children's literature in those years reflected and promoted adult ideals. Sources used include not only works by established authors but also children's periodicals and transient writings like "penny dreadfuls." There are four background chapters: an introduction, a brief social history, a history of publishing for chil- dren, and an examination of Victorian children's authors. Six chapters examine Victorian children's literature in relation to specific historical themes: class structure; the social problems of poverty; temperance; morality, manners, religion, and science; patriotism; and natives, slavery, and missionaries in relation to imperialism. Many findings support accepted historical theories. Attitudes on social class revealed definite class separa- tions, mobility, and obligations. Stories on poverty and 1 child labor show Victorian concern, but suggest few solutions other than charity. Literary items on religion and morality reflect a dominance of evangelical values. There was a morality separate from religion, and it was not threatened by the new developing science; indeed, the materials examined reveal how Victorians tried to reconcile the new science with theology. Religious obligations helped to promote and justify English nation- alism and imperialism. Victorian children's literature also shows clearly that English imperialism existed before the late Victorian era, a finding which supports the Robinson and Gallagher thesis. In a survey of selected periodicals from 1861 to 1886, the number of items concerning imperialism followed a continuous growth pattern. Social Darwinism became an element of imperi- alism later in the Victorian age. Items on religion as distinct from morality declined in number. This survey also showed that the number of literary items about social problems remained almost constant, a demonstration of the strength of the Victorian reform ethic. Copyright by Ann Trugman Ackerman 1984 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. VICTORIAN AGE 13 III. VICTORIAN PUBLISHING BUSINESS AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. 64 IV. THE CREATORS OF STORIES AND IMAGINATIVE TALES: THE AUTHORS OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 112 V. VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND ENGLISH CLASS STRUCTURE 137 VI. VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF POVERTY AND CHILD LABOR 159 VII. VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE EVILS OF DRINK, OR THE VICTORIAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT 195 VIII. PROPER AND WORTHY VICTORIANS: CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND VICTORIAN MORALITY, MANNERS, RELIGION, AND SCIENCE 211 IX. VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND PATRIOTISM, NATIONALISM, AND IMPERIALISM 250 X. NATIVES, SLAVERY, AND MISSIONARIES IN BRITISH IMPERIALISM AS REFLECTED IN VICTORIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE . 269 XI. CONCLUSION 306 IV TABLE OF CONTENTS-Continued Page APPENDIX A. SAMPLE WAGE FIGURES 1850-1914. 329 APPENDIX B. PRINTING FIGURES FOR SELECTED CHILDREN'S BOOKS 331 APPENDIX C. TOPICAL SURVEY OF SELECTED CHILDREN'S PERIODICALS, 1861-1886. 333 APPENDIX D. CIRCULATION OF SELECTED CHILDREN'S PERIODICALS 338 APPENDIX E. COST OF SELECTED CHILDREN'S PERIODICALS 339 BIBLIOGRAPHY 340 LIST OF TABLES Table Page I. Paupers, England and Wales for Selected Years 16 II. Unemployment, England and Wales for Selected Years 17 III. Labor Force Employed in Selected Occupations 18 IV. Elementary School Enrollment 1850-1910 ... 38 V. Multiple Copies of Titles Purchased by Mudie's 73 VI. Costs of Victorian Books and Magazines, Selected Titles 78 VII. Circulation Figures for Selected Weekly Adult Periodicals 94 VIII. Survival of Newly-Founded Juvenile Periodicals 96 IX. Number of Periodicals by Sexual Classification of Title 105 VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Soldiers and Pirates 128 2. Jessica, the Minister and His Children. 142 3. The Wind in the Willows 157 4. Good Children Help the Poor 187 5. The Bible 217 6. Manners and Proper Victorians 226 7. Patriotism and Morality 253 8. Patriotism 258 9. The Challenges of Colonial Life 278 10. Cruel Slavery 294 11. Queen Victoria and the Bible 303 12. Comparison of Topical Survey's Results. 335 13. Manners Declined in the Survey 336 14. Social Problems Constant in the Survey. 336 15. History Increased in the Survey 337 16. Religion Declined in the Survey 337 Vll CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines Victorian ideology through the medium of British children's literature published between 1850 and 1914. The literature of any given period mirrors the major ideas of that era; this dissertation contends that Victorian children's literature shows the ideas of that age in a pure form, without the dissimulation that Victorian adults might employ in other literature to mask their real beliefs. Historians have shown that the sources for historical study can include much more than chronicles and state papers. Historians can use, and have used, literature, directly or indirectly, to illuminate the characteristics of an age. Literary history has long been recognized as a valid mode of historical study. The studies of literature and its relation to the history of the times presented by such scholars as A. C. Baugh, David Daiches, Gordon Gerould, Vernon Parrington, and Ernest Simmons show that it is possible to examine the history of an age through literary studies."'" "'"Samuel C. Chew, The Nineteenth Century and After (1789-1939), vol. 4 of A Literary History of England, ed. A. C. Baugh, 4 vols. (New York, 1948); David Daiches, The 1 The spirit of an age appears in all forms of litera- ture. As the reading matter that adults select reflects the age in which it was written, so too does reading matter intended for children. Children's literature, a seldom-explored source, may well be a useful guide to insights into an historical era. For the Victorian years, through characters like fierce lions and stately unicorns as well as in more realistic tales, the historian may well be able to discern and to describe the ideology of Victorian England in a new manner. In the Victorian years, children's literature was 2 seen as a didactic instrument. Adults generally believed that children's literature shaped youthful ideals and morals. Children, in the adult's view, required rein- forcement for right behavior as well as instruction in morality and duty. The Victorian parents and teachers who followed that line of argument were only restating a classic position. Plato claimed in his Republic that the creation of a Present Ages: In British Literature, 4th pr. (Blooming- ton, Ind. , 1965); Gordon Hall Gerould, The Pattern of English and American Fiction; A History (New York,~~1966) ; Vernon L. Parrington, 1860-1920: The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America, vol. 3 of Main Currents in American Thought, 2d ed. (New York, 1930); Ernest J. Simmons, Russian Fiction and Soviet Ideology (Morningside Heights, N.Y., 1958); Ernest J. Simmons, Through The Glass of Soviet Literature, 2d pr. (New York, 1954). 2 Duncan Williams, Trousered Apes (New Rochelle, N.Y., 1970), 24-25, 30, 50. society must begin with the education of the young. To Plato, early childhood was the stage of life in which character was molded, the period when "... the desired 3 impression is more readily taken." Plato said that because literary education begins with tales told to infants, adults must select those tales with great care, for those stories helped to shape the character of the young child. As the child grows older, Plato said, he assumes that the ideas and beliefs expressed in those tales are right and proper. Thus, tales told to the young should show the triumph of virtue, bravery, and order. If the literature presented to children causes them to respect and appreciate those positive traits, the child 4 will uphold them for life. Two millenia after Plato, John Locke in his proto- behaviorist theories stressed how the external world 5 guides children in forming ideas. It is the duty of parents, Locke asserted, to educate the child in proper modes of thought and behavior, "because the ignorance and infirmities of childhood stand in need of restraint and 3 Plato, The Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett, vol. 7 of The Great Books of the Western World, ed. Robert M. Hutchins, 54 vols. (Chicago, 1952), 377. 4Ibid., 377, 376-378. 5 John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 35 of The Great Books of the Western World, ed. Robert M. Hutchins, 54 vols. (Chicago, 1952), 2.1.4-8. /T correction. ..." In a childhood that should be regimented, the youngster should receive only the ideas n and beliefs adults have selected for him. Thus, the philosopher Plato and the judicious Locke could reinforce the inclinations of Victorian parents. Those persons responsible for a child's education in Victorian England accepted the duty of selecting appropri- ate reading matter for their young charges. The form of the reading material did not matter. The careful and dutiful parent chose material that would reinforce adult ideals or show proper action, whether in the form of alphabet book, moral parable, adventure story, poem, or flight of imagination. The authors of those works were, like almost all authors, the prisoners of the times in which they wrote. It can be argued that the very best authors somehow transcend the society that nurtures them.