The child, the state, and the Victorian novel
By: Laura C. Berry.
Series: Victorian literature and culture series
Publisher: University Press of Virginia
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Charlottesville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
Subjects: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Characters -- Children; English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Children in literature; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Children -- Great Britain -- Social conditions; Social problems in literature; State, The, in literature
Description: "Berry examines the nineteenth-century fascination with victimized children to show how novels and reform writings reorganize ideas of self and society as narratives of childhood distress. Berry shows the ways in which fiction that purports to deal with private life, particularly the domain of the family, nevertheless intervenes in public and social debates.

At the same time she examines medical, legal, charitable, and social-relief writings to show how these documents provide crucial sources in the development of social welfare and modern representations of the family."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-194) and index.