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Date: 15 March 2002 00:00 -0500
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipients of VICTORIA digests <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: VICTORIA Digest - 13 Mar 2002 to 14 Mar 2002 (#2002-74)
There are 17 messages totalling 498 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Children's Literature (7)
2. railways and children's literature
3. Children's Literature and railways (2)
4. Obituary: Chris Brooks of the Victorian Society
5. =?iso-8859-1?Q?Private=20press?=
6. pronunciation question
7. More mohawkiana (2)
8. children's literature and railways
9. private press & children's lit.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 20:20:19 +1000
From: Kathleen Jennings <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Children's Literature
Hello.
I'm looking for two things, can anyone help me?
First: Does anyone know of good resources for the influence of railway =
on culture esp. literature? I know this is broad, but if someone does =
know a particularly pertinent book/site etc, it would be nice!
Second: I'm looking for children's literature which refers to the =
railway. Obviously I am primarily interested in the Victorian literature =
and the early influence of the railways, but I'm also looking at later =
writings. For example, not only books about the railways (The Railway =
Children springs to mind) but others which contain references to them. =
There is a beautiful discussion of the influence of railways on the =
holidays of school children in the early chapters of Tom Brown's =
Schooldays, and the brief references to railway journeys in Enid =
Blyton's boarding school stories (slightly later era) can also be =
illuminating. So if anyone knows of books with trains in them, I'd love =
to know.
Regards to all,
Kathleen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tenet insanibile multos scribendi cacoethes.
- Horace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathleen Jennings
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:30:07 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
Kathleen,
In Marshall Saunders's Beautiful Joe, Ch. xv, "Our
Journey to Riverdale," Joe is involved in a railway
accident, and is left alone in the dark a long time
before he is rescued. (He's ok.) Of course, Joe is a
dog, not a child, but there are connections, surely!
Deborah Denenholz Morse
The College of William and Mary
Quoting Kathleen Jennings <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hello.
> I'm looking for two things, can anyone help
> me?
> First: Does anyone know of good resources for
> the influence of railway on culture esp.
> literature? I know this is broad, but if someone
> does know a particularly pertinent book/site
> etc, it would be nice!
> Second: I'm looking for children's literature
> which refers to the railway. Obviously I am
> primarily interested in the Victorian literature
> and the early influence of the railways, but I'm
> also looking at later writings. For example, not
> only books about the railways (The Railway
> Children springs to mind) but others which
> contain references to them. There is a beautiful
> discussion of the influence of railways on the
> holidays of school children in the early
> chapters of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and the
> brief references to railway journeys in Enid
> Blyton's boarding school stories (slightly later
> era) can also be illuminating. So if anyone
> knows of books with trains in them, I'd love to
> know.
> Regards to all,
> Kathleen.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
--------------
> Tenet insanibile multos scribendi cacoethes.
> -
> Horace.
> ------------------------------------------------------
--------------
> Kathleen Jennings
> [log in to unmask]
>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:48:35 -0500
From: Hugh MacDougall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
Re: Railway stories
Charles Dicken's special Christmas Number -- Mugby Junction -- comes to
mind. Intended for all ages, certainly, but also very railway oriented.
Slightly out of period are the railway episodes in "The Wind in the
Willows."
Hugh MacDougall
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathleen Jennings" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 5:20 AM
Subject: Children's Literature
Hello.
I'm looking for two things, can anyone help me?
First: Does anyone know of good resources for the influence of railway on
culture esp. literature? I know this is broad, but if someone does know a
particularly pertinent book/site etc, it would be nice!
Second: I'm looking for children's literature which refers to the railway.
Obviously I am primarily interested in the Victorian literature and the
early influence of the railways, but I'm also looking at later writings. For
example, not only books about the railways (The Railway Children springs to
mind) but others which contain references to them. There is a beautiful
discussion of the influence of railways on the holidays of school children
in the early chapters of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and the brief references to
railway journeys in Enid Blyton's boarding school stories (slightly later
era) can also be illuminating. So if anyone knows of books with trains in
them, I'd love to know.
Regards to all,
Kathleen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tenet insanibile multos scribendi cacoethes.
- Horace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kathleen Jennings
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:51:11 -0500
From: Elizabeth Hale <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: railways and children's literature
Kathleen,
A few come to mind, not all nineteenth century.
Anne of Green Gables is met off the train by Matthew Cuthbert; Joan
Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase has a thrilling and scary train
scene; the circus in the Disney film Dumbo travels by train; and a
favourite from my very early days as a reader: The Truck that Stuck,
has a truck, filled with amazing and interesting things, stuck on a
railway track awaiting the express.
I'm not entirely sure about this, but Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet
School series may well have train journeys. There are 40+ books in
the series, so you might want to inquire with the Chalet School club
which ones are best to read.
And of course, the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter books is
directly related to traditional train journeys to and from school.
Hope that helps,
Elizabeth Hale
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 16:29:47 -0000
From: K Eldron <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
Another post-Victorian childrens classic is John Masefield's "The Box of
Delights" It opens (and closes) with the young hero on a train journey
through the snow. This sets the tone of the whole book with intimations of
magic, crime and things definitely not being what they seem (notably a pair
of card-sharping clergymen!)
K Eldron
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 16:45:48 -0000
From: Valerie Gorman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
More in period are Grahame's essays that preceeded Wind in the Willows
especially 'Romance of the Rail' in the 8 Aug 1891 issue of the National
Observer. Though not written for children, this essay and others formed the
foundation for his more well-known writings in 'The Golden Age' and 'Dream
Days' as well as 'Wind in the Willows'.
Valerie Gorman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 16:54:24 GMT
From: Lesley Hall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature and railways
_The Last Battle_ by CS Lewis, the final episode of the
Narnia saga, includes a railway accident (and I think
there is a scene on a railway station in ?_Prince
Caspian_). Railways also feature in several ways
(journeys, meeting people on stations, averted
accidents) in Antonia Forest's 'Marlowe family' novels.
Lesley Hall
[log in to unmask]
website:
http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 18:35:18 -0000
From: Lesley Hall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Obituary: Chris Brooks of the Victorian Society
In today's _Guardian_
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4373893,00.html
Lesley Hall
[log in to unmask]
website http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:49:55 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Private=20press?=
Dear all-
A friend of mine, who is a student of librarianship, is working on the
private press in the nineteenth century. Cave in his book 'The Private
Press' mentions that very small domestic presses were introduced in the
1870s, allowing amateur printers to work at home (and enabling small
businesses to acquire the necessary equipment more cheaply). Jabez
Francis, in a pamphlet entitled *Printing at Home* designed to advertise
the multifarious uses of these reasonably inexpensive presses writes that
they could be used in a domestic setting:
'Printing may be made to afford a profitable amusement for many... Either
parent may write an essay, poem, or note to friends at a distance, a young
lady daughter may "compose" it... the proofs may be read by all and
corrected, it is then "made ready", and one rolls the "forme" or type,
while another prints at the press.'
Obviously, small-scale printers worked 'at home' way before this, but Cave
argues that the emphasis on printing as a familial, domestic, and *amateur*
activity is new. My friend was wondering whether there are any passages
in diaries, and particularly from fiction or poetry of the nineteenth
documenting this type of amateur printing, which seems to be very different
in nature to the activities of someone like Blake a little earlier, or to
the distinct, individual aims of figures like Horace Walpole in the C18 and
William Morris in the C19 who used the private press. I couldn't
personally think of any examples, and wondered if folks on the list could
be of any help here. Any recommendations as to secondary literature on this
subject would also be appreciated!
Cheers-
Kiera Chapman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:39:45 -0000
From: Lesley Hall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature and railways
There used to be an email list devoted to children's literature, or at
least girls' school stories - girlsown - but I don't know if this is still
operational.
Lesley Hall
[log in to unmask]
website http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 14:58:39 -0500
From: Herbert Tucker <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
How about poems featuring children who travel on trains?
R E Egerton-Warburton's Poems (1877) contain an often-anthologized sonnet,
"Past and Present," comparing coach and rail travel home from boarding
school. And, though Hardy's Moments of Vision is late (1917), Hardy's not:
look for "Midnight on the Great Western," a rail-wise re-writing of
Wordsworth's Intimations Ode.
Herbert Tucker
Department of English
219 Bryan Hall
University of Virginia 22904-4121
[log in to unmask]
434 / 924-6677
FAX: 434 / 924-1478
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:19:17 -0500
From: cawiley <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: pronunciation question
Hello listmembers,
In preparation for the NVSA conference in April, I'm coming out of lurk-mode
to ask a question I've wondered about for some time: what is the correct
pronunciation of John Addington Symonds's last name? That is, is it a long-i
sound or a short-i sound? (I've heard it both ways.)
Thanks in advance, and private replies might be best,
Catherine
Dr. Catherine A. Wiley
Visiting Assistant Professor
English Department
Temple University
Philadelphia PA 19122
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:27:30 -0500
From: richard vandewetering <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Children's Literature
Dear Kathleen
you might try Leo Marx "The Machine in the Garden".
Yours Richard VandeWetering
Politics, Univ of Western Ontario
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:04:19 +1030
From: Kerryn Goldsworthy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: More mohawkiana
I'd never heard of any Mohawks (or hocks) apart from the North American
sort till this subject came up on the list; but, reading Chesterton's
Father Brown stories last night - 'The Hammer of God', to be precise - I
came across this description of an aristocratic English family called
Bohun: 'Few except the poor preserve traditions. Aristocrats live not in
traditions but in fashions. The Bohuns had been Mohocks under Queen Anne
and Mashers under Queen Victoria.'
------------------
Kerryn Goldsworthy
93 Spring Street
Queenstown, SA 5014
AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 (0)8 8341 0224
Mobile: +61 (0)402 052198
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:01:35 -0800
From: "Margot K. Louis" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: children's literature and railways
Near the end of Rudyard Kipling's _Captains Courageous_ there's a
long, characteristically detailed description of a millionaire's rapid
journey by (private) train across N. America (and there's a crocodile's-eye
view of a train in "The Undertakers" in _The Jungle Books_). There's also
a railway journey in _Kim_, replete with spywork, disguise, danger, and
local colour. There's a brief railway journey in Lewis Carroll's _Through
the Looking-Glass_, chapt. 3. E. Nesbit's _The Treasure-Seekers_ contains
a railway journey during which two of the Bastables make the acquaintance
of a (woman) poet who reappears later on. In the second half of Charlotte
Yonge's _The Daisy Chain_ Ethel and Dr. May meet an old friend of Dr. May's
during a railway journey, and this chance encounter turns out to be very
important to the family.
Set in the 19c though written in the 20c is Laura Ingalls Wilder's
_By the Shores of Silver Lake_, which includes not only an account of a
journey by rail but also a lovingly detailed description of the building of
a railway. I have no date for Bessie Marchant's _The Youngest Sister_, but
it appears to be set before WW I, possibly at the turn of the century, and
it contains at least two thrilling and dramatic train journeys.
Moving on to the 20c, Mary in Frances Hodgson Burnett's _The Secret
Garden_ goes up to Yorkshire by train, and Margaret Smith's _Margy_ (1992)
describes in detail a protracted journey by train in Canada, in the year
1932, very interesting for details about the CNR at that time. The
situation of a child taking a train journey to an unknown bourne is in fact
a very common one in literature; see also such otherwise divers works as
Edward Eager's _Knight's Castle_, Arthur Ransome's _Coot Club_ (his _Pigeon
Post_ and _The Picts and the Martyrs_ also begin with a train journey),
Elizabeth Marie Pope's _The Sherwood Ring_, _Understood Betsy_ (the
author's name escapes me for the moment) and a great many stories about
going to school for the first time.
The most railway-oriented of Antonia Forest's Marlow series is
_Ready-Made Family_ (which contains a train-mad small boy and a
near-accident quite like the one in _Railway Children_), but as Lesley Hall
says railway journeys appear in nearly every volume of the series, which
begins with a bang when the protagonist of _Autumn Term_ improperly pulls
the communication cord. The opening scene of _Autumn Term_ heavily
influences the train scene in Harriet Martyn's _Jenny and the Syndicate_.
Elizabeth Enright's _Gone-Away Lake_ includes a charming train journey.
Elizabeth Hale is right about railway journeys in the Chalet School
series; perhaps the most memorable are in _The Highland Twins at the Chalet
School_ (it's WW II and there's an air raid during the journey), _Carola
Storms the Chalet School_, and _The New Mistress at the Chalet School_.
There's quite a long journey by rail in Enid Blyton's _The Sea of
Adventure_.
And finally a train appears at the crucial moment to cut down the
Efrafans in Richard Adams' _Watership Down_; the rabbits who are saved
perceive the train as a messenger of their sun-god Frith--deus=machina, one
might say.
Margot K. Louis
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:01:48 -0800
From: "Margot K. Louis" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: private press & children's lit.
Not quite domestic, but certainly amateur (though pre-professional) and
unorthodox are the printing activities of Beetle in Kipling's _Stalky &
Co._
Margot K. Louis
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 11:05:49 +0800
From: Maureen Perkins <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: More mohawkiana
I have no idea what Mashers were!!
Thank you to everyone who informed me about Mohawks. I knew the 18th
c. connection wouldn't throw you!
>I'd never heard of any Mohawks (or hocks) apart from the North American
>sort till this subject came up on the list; but, reading Chesterton's
>Father Brown stories last night - 'The Hammer of God', to be precise - I
>came across this description of an aristocratic English family called
>Bohun: 'Few except the poor preserve traditions. Aristocrats live not in
>traditions but in fashions. The Bohuns had been Mohocks under Queen Anne
>and Mashers under Queen Victoria.'
>
>------------------
>Kerryn Goldsworthy
>
Maureen Perkins
Curtin
------------------------------
End of VICTORIA Digest - 13 Mar 2002 to 14 Mar 2002 (#2002-74)
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