Description: Highly respected as a writer by her contemporaries, Hesba Stretton (1832-1911) was a vigorous campaigner for the rights of oppressed minorities and a founding member of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Mining nineteenth-century periodicals and archival materials, Elaine Lomax explores the intersection of cultural and literary representations of the child with wider images of the colonized or excluded, and advances our understanding of the development of juvenile literature and women's writing.
Review Quotes: 'In her exhaustively researched study of Hesba Stretton, Elaine Lomax combines evidence gleaned from nineteenth-century periodicals and archival research with intelligent close readings to reveal Stretton's importance as a novelist, social activist and children's book author. As Lomax persuasively shows, Stretton was far more engaged with mid-Victorian issues than people who know her only as the author of Jessica's First Prayer would suspect.' Sally Mitchell, Temple University, USA '...full of stimulating arguments and perceptive insights, which will surely enrich our understanding and appreciation of this important Victorian writer.' Children's Books History Society Newsletter 'After finishing this well-written, highly informative and analytical book, the reader must agree that Elaine Lomax has succeeded in her attempt to reclaim Hesba Stretton for the 21st century professional audience.' American and British Studies Annual 'In this thoroughly researched book Lomax succeeds in making her readers aware of how much we don't know about Stretton and convinces us that Stretton is a writer worth further exploration... [This book] will prove valuable for scholars in a variety of fields, from publishing history to Anglo-Russian relations; for anyone studying Stretton's more popular tracts, this book provides a much-needed perspective and a useful bibliography of Stretton's entire oeuvre.' Victorian Studies