Children's Literature

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This adage takes on various meanings according to context -- in the early twenty-first century, it will most likely be used to imply too much seriousness about schoolwork. But in the consideration of children's literature in the nineteenth century, we face the prospect of a society where child labor was actually a fact of life. We are familiar with the stereotypes that still linger on in the collective imagination, of young boys forced to work as chimney-sweeps or girls forced to labor in textile factories. But the simple fact is that between the present day and the emergence of children's literature as a category of its own, largely during the nineteenth century, there has been a widespread reform in labor practices and social mores which has altered the meaning of what "work" might mean for young Jack, or...
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