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This is one of Mrs. Sherwood's Moral and family tales, fervently religious and moral short stories written for children, in which their own innate sinfulness is emphasised, as well as the dire consequences which will befall them if they slip from the path of rigorous Christian virtue. The Tales sold in large numbers, and were extremely popular (among well-meaning adults) as Sunday school prizes and Sunday reading in God-fearing households.
A sample chapter of The history of Susan Gray from Moral and family tales 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 206kb 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 history of Susan Gray from Moral and family tales.
As the title page of The history of Susan Gray makes clear, it was aimed at a very specific readership, intended as it was "for the benefit of young women when going to service etc." The message it gave such young women was one of obedience, humility, of the necessity of keeping to one's place in society, and of avoiding bad company. Susan, who follows the righteous path, has a hard and unhappy life, but a blessed death, while Charlotte, who has "followed the ways of sin which lead to eternal misery", has an appropriately miserable end.
At the end, the reader is exhorted to:
Remember Susan Gray, and let her example be ever in your mind; and let it not be your wish to be rich and great, to seek for distinction and pleasure in this world, but to do your duty in that humble state in which God has placed you, and however lowly and poor that state may be, yet fear not that you will fail of your reward.
Page created 26 November 2002 and last
updated 26 November 2002
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