Breaking the Angelic Image: Woman Power in Victorian Children's Fantasy (Contributions in Women's Studies) - Hardcover

Honig, Edith Lazaros

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031326127X ISBN 13: 9780313261275

Publisher: Praeger, 1988

Synopsis

Honig's short, pleasantly written book is a consideration of the images of women--as mothers, spinsters, girls, and supernatural women--in 19th-and early 20th-century fantasy novels for children. . . . Honig sees fantasy as a means of freeing women from the Victorian social restraints--at first, imaginatively. Choice

This is the first book-length study of nineteenth-century children's fantasy from a feminist viewpoint. Honig focuses on a number of major works that are representative of the best of their era--including such classics as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll; The Golden Key, The Princess and the Goblin, and others by George MacDonald; the works of Mary Louisa Molesworth; Peter and Wendy by James Barrie; The Five Children and Itand The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit. Through a close reading of these fantasies Honig demonstrates that although Victorian women were still being repressed in the home and the marketplace, the female figure in literature played a role that was quite different from the traditional stereotype of the meek, submissive wife and mother.

About this title

Book Description

Through a close reading of major works in nineteenth-century children's fantasy, Honig demonstrates that although Victorian women were still being repressed in the home and the marketplace, the female figure in literature played a role that was quite different from the traditional stereotype of the meek, submissive wife and mother.

About the Author

EDITH LAZAROS HONIG teaches English in New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Praeger
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 031326127X
• ISBN 13: 9780313261275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 168