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Hesba Stretton was a prolific and successful author of books for children--books written primarily to edify and evanglise rather than to amuse or entertain. Published by the Religious Tract Society, and often given as Sunday School prizes, they could be read (willingly or unwillingly) on Sundays, when more light-hearted and secular literature was banned in many households. But the child who was given The children of Cloverley was fortunate: the story of Ben and Annie Bakewell, which begins in a log-house in America, includes trans-Atlantic travel, a "lost in the snow" scenario, and sundry other adventures, has plenty to attract the childish imagination, and the characters, both adults and children, while perhaps a little priggish and two-dimensional to the modern mind, are much more appealing than the horrible Fairchild family or the rather vapid children in Mrs Molesworth's books.
A sample chapter of The children of Cloverley is available on this website.
The full text can also be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 282kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the full text of The children of Cloverley.
...when Miss Annie was dying...she sent this message to every one of you; every man, and woman, and child among you: 'You must give my love to them,' she said, 'and tell them that I love them just as the Lord Jesus loves them; and I shall be glad--oh, so glad!--to meet them all in heaven!'
These are not necessarily the sentiments we would expect now from a child of eleven or twelve, but Hesba Stretton's heroines do tend to be exceptional. From the earliest chapters of the book, Annie--with her love for the painting of angel children in the parlour of their log-house in America, her ability to win the love of all on board the ship bringing her and her brother to England (every sailor "taking her small hand in their large and horny palms as if it were some precious and fragile thing"), and her willingness to preach the acceptance of God's will to every adult she comes in contact with--seems an unlikely character to win the affections of her readers. The cynical of today might think that there must have been rejoicing in many juvenile hearts when she eventually went into a rapid decline. But the story is full of incident and excitement, and it's easy to envisage it becoming a firm favourite.
One would certainly not expect the average child of today to be attracted to this book: it's just too far outside their frame of reference. But for a reader who is prepared to accept Hesba Stretton as an extremely popular writer in her own time, and to batten down their own contemporary expectations and values, it provides a fascinating insight into the mind-set and beliefs of an earlier generation. The interesting question is not really "Did Victorian children really enjoy this book?" but "Why did Victorian adults think this book was suitable for their children?" And there's a whole book waiting to be written about that!
Page created 15 November 2002 and last
updated 17 December 2002
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