2. Mid-Nineteenth-Century
British Social Conditions
19th century change—
industrialization, urbanization,
imperialism, class change,
population growth, wars, etc.
Prosperity in 1850s/60s, then
economic and class problems in
following decades
Family as enclave against
changing world
Queen Victoria, reign 1837-1901—
icon of nuclear family
Image: Queen Victoria & Prince Albert Edward, 1844
3. Victorian Attitudes Toward Children
A culture obsessed with middle/upper-class children
On one hand, Romantic view: children as epitome of
innocence and goodness, with an inherent spirituality
On other hand, Puritanical view: children as tainted
by Original Sin, requiring strictness, firmness, even
severity in upbringing
In literature: perfect children modeling good behavior,
or evil children suitably published
Class-based issue: e.g. 80% of cotton mill workers
were children in early 1800s
4. Cult of Childhood
Romance with (middle/upper class)
childhood seen everywhere—art,
manners, decorating, clothing
design, leisure culture, literature,
etc.
Deep adult longing for what
childhood represented—innocence,
innate spirituality, progress and
promise, hope
Way for adults to work out their own
fears and doubts about changing,
uncertain world
Search for an Arcadia, an idyllic
place, a secret garden
5. Publishing Trends for Children
Children’s books among most profitable segment of
publishing industry
Advances in printing technology—exploding print
marketplace
From 1860s on: two basic streams in Victorian
children’s literature
“Realism”—stories set firmly in “real world” (e.g.
didactic fiction, school stories, domestic tales, most
adventure novels)
“Fantastic”—stories involving some impossible thing
(e.g. talking animals or toys, magical events, nonsense
poems and stories)
Upsurge in fantastic in England during late-19th century;
entrenchment in realistic in America during same period
6. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
Even so, Alice books almost utterly
unprecedented—opens the
“Golden Age”
1832-1898
Mathematics teacher, amateur
photographer (little girls)
“[A]n intense, buttoned-up loner
whom a repressive society pushed
into real eccentricity. Fantasy was
his escape, . . . a chance to reduce
to chaos some of the
establishment values which
publicly he upheld” (Jackie
Wullschläger)
7. Alice’s Reception
Generally hailed as a true
path-breaker, even genius
Not universally acclaimed at
first: Book “too extravagantly
absurd to produce more
diversion than
disappointment and irritation”
(Illustrated Times).
But generally revered by time
Through the Looking Glass
published (1872)
Image: Alice Liddell as photographed by Dodgson
