Juvenile Literature and British Society 1850-1950

<p>In this study Charles Ferrall and Anna Jackson argue that the Victorians created a concept of adolescence that lasted into the twentieth century and yet is strikingly at odds with post-Second World War notions of adolescence as a period of storm and stress. In the enormously popular juvenile literature of the period primarily boys’ and girls’ own adventure and school stories adolescence is acknowledged as a time of sexual awareness and yet also of a romantic idealism that is lost with marriage a time when boys and girls acquire adult duties and responsibilities and yet have not had to assume the roles of breadwinner or household manager. The book reveals a concept of adolescence as significant as the Romantic cult of childhood that preceded it which will be of interest to scholars of both children’s literature and Victorian culture. </p>