From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England

by Colin Manlove

'The longer I live, the more I am convinced of the importance of children's books.' When Robert Bloomfield wrote this in 1817 he could have had no idea of the range of children's books to come, nor of how in England fantasy would be their outstanding form. In this survey of 400 English children's fantasies from 1850 to 2000, taking in authors from the well-known Charles Kingsley, C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling to the less-known Annie Keary, Edith Elias and Pete Johnson, Colin Manlove shows just how good their books often are as literature. He combines new interpretations of individual works with explanations of how and why their character changes over time, reflecting their different cultural settings. This book is intended both as a critical companion for children's literature courses, and as a stimulus for the general reader and students at all levels.

Genres: Nonfiction, Harry Potter

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2003

About the author

Colin Nicholas Manlove was a Scottih literary critic with a particular interest in fantasy.

Reviews

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one to rate.

The first half, covering the late 1800s to mid-1900s, was great - I agreed with/thought his arguments interesting about the books I had read, and was motivated to track down some of the earlier ones I hadn't read.

But there were several random errors, especially towards the end - he kept citing the wrong Harry Potter titles, and mentioned 'Astrid Lingren's Moomins' ?!? just like, surely the editor should have noticed that sort of thing.

And for the conclusion it felt like he was saying whatever he felt like, then cherrypicking the evidence to prove his point.

So, since I really mainly read this to find out about obscure/old/interesting kids books, it was a success in that regard. BUT I also wanted to think about children's fantasy as a genre and it only sometimes succeeded in that.