Worlds of Wonder

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

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

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

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

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)

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