{"id":466,"date":"2017-05-05T11:50:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T11:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/?p=466"},"modified":"2017-05-26T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T16:13:29","slug":"juliana-horatia-ewing-an-inspiration-in-the-reading-lives-of-victorian-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/2017\/05\/05\/juliana-horatia-ewing-an-inspiration-in-the-reading-lives-of-victorian-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Juliana Horatia Ewing – an inspiration in the reading lives of Victorian children"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the authors whose well-thumbed books we frequently\u00a0discover in the Museum’s long-untouched boxes is Juliana Horatia Ewing<\/strong>. Once a popular and celebrated writer of late Victorian children’s fiction,\u00a0her achievements\u00a0 –\u00a0 as so often the case with women writers of\u00a0 –\u00a0 have been overlooked. Here, Lois<\/strong> marks Ewing’s\u00a0importance in the history of children’s literature as well as her influence and inspiration.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Ewing-flat-iron\"<\/a>

One of the Museum’s many books by Ewing – testament to her popularity with readers<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 1853, Reverend John Todd published a conduct book, The Daughter at School<\/em>, in which he stipulates what good girls ought to read. He writes that:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are but two kinds of books in the world, \u2013 such as are designed to instruct,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and such as are intended to amuse; and when a book blends amusement with instruction, it is not for the sake of amusement, but for the sake of instruction, \u2013 just as you mix sugar with your medicine, not for the sake of the sugar, but to make the medicine go down.[1]<\/u><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ewing-Lob-by-the-Fire\"

Many of Ewing’s stories drew on folk and fairylore<\/p><\/div>\n

One writer who arguably achieved both amusement and instruction in her writing was Juliana Horatia Ewing (n\u00e9e Gatty, 1841-1885)<\/strong>, who burst into the lives of reading girls in the final three decades of the nineteenth century. Some of her children\u2019s books sold more than one hundred thousand copies during this time period, yet she is still relatively obscure to Victorianists today.[2]<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Born in Yorkshire, Ewing\u2019s father was a clergyman and her mother encouraged Juliana and her sister Horatia to write creatively. Juliana was known by many of those closest to her as \u2018Aunt Judy\u2019, and she first published most of her fiction in Aunt Judy’s Tales<\/em>\u00a0(1859),\u00a0Aunt Judy’s Letters<\/em>\u00a0(1862), and\u00a0Aunt Judy’s Magazine<\/em>\u00a0(1866\u201382), which her mother edited. After her mother\u2019s death, Juliana became joint editor of the magazine with her sister. In the early 1860s Ewing was also published in The Monthly Packet<\/em>, the Anglican magazine edited by Charlotte Yonge<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s book collection at the Museum of Childhood<\/strong> in Edinburgh holds several of Ewing\u2019s books, as well as one about Juliana\u2019s writerly influence, penned by her sister Horatia Gatty. Ewing died age 44 in 1885, and Horatia released the text for Juliana\u2019s followers. In it she wrote rhapsodically about her sister\u2019s story-writing ability. She likens her to Hans Christian Andersen, and reveals that during her final months, \u2018Julie\u2019 wanted more than anything to hear children’s stories, and especially ones told by boy protagonists:<\/p>\n

\u2026her appreciation of fun, too, remained keen as ever, and, strange as it may seem, one of the very few books which she liked to have read aloud was Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”; the dry humour of it, \u2013 the natural way in which everything is told from a boy’s point of view, – and the vivid and beautiful descriptions of river scenery \u2013 all charmed her<\/em>.[3]<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\"Mary-sMeadpw\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Inspiring stories<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her books were well regarded by well-known figures of her day. Rudyard Kipling<\/strong>, for instance, knew one of Ewing\u2019s longer works Six to Sixteen <\/em>(1872; 1875) almost by heart.[4]<\/u><\/a> The tale is presented as an autobiography of Margery, who describes her orphaned upbringing in India and England. The story must\u2019ve struck a chord with Kipling, who described his difficult childhood in the semi-autobiographical story \u2018Baa Baa Black Sheep\u2019, published in 1888. The founder of the scouting movement Robert Baden-Bowell borrowed the name of the young faction of the Girl Guides from Ewing\u2019s story \u2018The Brownies\u2019 (1865).<\/p>\n

Ewing\u2019s child characters in many ways exemplify a sentimentalised and idealised view of childhood. In Mrs Overtheways\u2019 Remembrances <\/em>(1866-8; 1869), Ida, the young girl who shyly approaches her old neighbour, the so-called Mrs Overtheways, is \u2018a very quiet, obedient little girl as a general rule.\u2019[5]<\/u><\/a> The story explores the innocent potential in children\u2019s curiosity. Another of Ewing\u2019s stories, \u2018Jackanapes\u2019 (1869; 1883), features what Horatia calls her \u2018forte<\/em>\u2019 and favourite subject \u2013 soldiers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as her husband was in the military, the story is relentlessly moralistic as well as sentimental. Set in 1815, it tells the story of a boy soldier who dies in battle. \u2018Jackanapes\u2019 is also full of literary citations \u2013 Lord Byron, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Herbert, John Bunyan, and the German Romantic writer Jean Paul Richter are referred to, which communicates the author\u2019s aspirations for her young readers.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ewing\u2019s texts deserve to be reassessed in light of her huge influence on nineteenth-century children\u2019s fiction. Like many women writers of children\u2019s fiction such as Mary Molesworth<\/strong> and Charlotte Yonge<\/strong> who sold prolifically in the nineteenth century yet have been excluded from the literary canon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notes<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/u><\/a> Reverend John Todd, DD, The Daughter at School<\/em> (London: T Nelson and Sons, 1853), p. 118.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/u><\/a> For more information on Ewing\u2019s life and works, see Philip V. Allingham\u2019s article \u2018Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885), Pioneering Late-Victorian Children’s Author \u2014 Life and Works\u2019 on The Victorian Web. http:\/\/www.victorianweb.org\/authors\/ewing\/bio.html<\/u><\/a> [accessed 3rd May 2017]<\/p>\n

[3]<\/u><\/a> Horatia K. F. Gatty, Juliana Horatia Ewing and Her Books <\/em>(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1885), pp. 78-9.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/u><\/a> Susan Drain, \u2018Ewing , Juliana Horatia (1841\u20131885)\u2019, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2004) http:\/\/www.oxforddnb.com\/view\/article\/9019<\/u><\/a> [accessed 3 May 2017]<\/p>\n

[5]<\/u><\/a> Mrs Overtheways Remembrances<\/em>, p. 19.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This post written by Lois<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the authors whose well-thumbed books we frequently\u00a0discover in the Museum’s long-untouched boxes is Juliana Horatia Ewing. Once a popular and celebrated writer of late Victorian children’s fiction,\u00a0her achievements\u00a0 –\u00a0 as so often the case with women writers of\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,6,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-girls","category-education-learning","category-fairy-tales","category-women-writers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/selcie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}