University of Strathclyde

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Rousseau, Rational Education and Romanticism: 1780-1820

Back to More Children's Books

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, or On Education (Paris, 1762). A philosophical novel that challenged dominant ideas about education, invented the modern concept of childhood, and deeply influenced European Romanticism. The best edition currently available is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education, edited and translated by Allan Bloom (Basic Books, 1979). Main Library.

Jacques-Henri Bernadin de Saint-Pierre, Paul et Virginie (1788); a novel that did a great deal to spread Rousseau's concept of 'natural childhood' throughout Europe. Main Library.

Thomas Day, Sandford and Merton (in three parts, 1783-1789); a series of stories about the education of two boys that was deeply influenced by Rousseau; it 'continued a firm favourite well into the next century' (Children’s Literature, p.57). Main Library. For a downloadable version, see http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/etexts/E000276.htm

Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life (1788), with engravings by William Blake in the 1791 edition. Currently available in a facsimile edition published by Woodstock Books (2001). Main Library.

Anna Letitia Barbauld, Lessons for Children (1788), Hymns in Prose for Children (1781), and (with her brother John Aikin) Evenings at Home (1792-96); selections from the latter two are available in Anna Letitia Barbauld: Selected Poetry & Prose, edited by William McCarthey and Elizabeth Kraft (Broadview, 2002). Several copies of this edition are in the Main Library.

Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Practical Education (1798); child-centred theory of children's education, influenced by Locke and Rousseau, among others. Main Library.

Sarah Trimmer: writer for children and educationalist who promoted piety and hard work; her Fabulous Histories (1786) (later retitled The History of the Robins) blends Christian piety with 'a sympathy for nature undoubtedly influenced by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Enlightenment values'; her Guardian of Education (1802-6) 'was perhaps the earliest critical journal of children's literature in English' (Children's Books, p.718). Latter in Main Library.

Hannah More: an evangelical Anglican and politically conservative writer whose Cheap Repository Tracts (1795-97) used the chapbook format to instil her ideological values among the poor (including their children) in order to deflect them from the radical politics of the 1790s; her Strictures on Female Education blends these values with views that are not unlike Wollstonecraft's. The latter is in the Main Library. A larger selection of her works can be found in Glasgow University Library.

Romantic poets and prose writers (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, etc) attacked the instrumental model of education in some of the above authors, and stressed instead the value of fantasy and the imagination.

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789-94).

William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads (1798/1800), The Prelude (1798-1805), and ‘Intimations of Immortality’ (1807).

Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales From Shakespeare (1807). Jordanhill.

Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales appeared in new versions and editions aimed at children.

Eleanor Sleath's Glenowen, Or The Fairy Palace: A Tale (1815) is the first sustained fantasy fiction for children. Out of print and not in any of Glasgow's libraries.

Ann and Jane Taylor, Rural Scenes (1806) and City Scenes; or, A Peep into London for Children (1818), allowed middle class children to ‘peep’ into the lives of poor children. Out of print and not in Strathclyde's libraries.

Johann David Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson (1812): one of the first Robinsonnades aimed at young readers; the first English translation was published by William Godwin in 1814.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (first German edition 1812); first translated into English by Edgar Taylor, and illustrated by George Crookshank, as German Popular Stories in 1823 (including 'Hansel and Gretel', 'Rumpelstiltskin', and 'Snow White'). The Grimms' project of collecting (and re-writing) folk tales was part of the German Romantic movement and had its counterpart in Britain. Various English editions in both libraries.

Chapbooks continued to appear in the 1820s and 1830s, featuring traditional folk- and fairy-tales. Writers such as Sir Henry Cole and W.J. Thomas retold these tales in beautifully illustrated volumes for children, thereby rescuing 'much of the material previously relegated to chapbooks, and [restoring] fairy tales and old stories to the children of the middle classes' (Children’s Literature, pp.89-90).

For further information about the Children's Literature class, please contact Dr Tom Furniss at t.furniss@strath.ac.uk

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