Literary Cultures and Nineteenth-Century Childhoods: An Introduction

The nineteenth century was a crucial period for shifting definitions of children and childhood and for the development and diversification of children’s literature. It was an era in which some of the most memorable and enduring depictions of children appeared within English literature and was marked by major innovations in the field of literature for children. From the legendary anxiety among readers over the fate of Little Nell as they awaited the concluding instalment of Charles Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) to the publication of perhaps the most recognised work of children’s literature in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), the cultural and historical conditions of the nineteenth century established fertile ground for the burgeoning of literary childhoods.