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The Family Story
Gillian Avery
It is a curious fact that few authors of juvenile domestic tales have felt equal to depicting
a complete family. In American books of the last century it is the mother (or perhaps a
spinster aunt) who holds the home together. A happy home circle with both a Pa and a
Ma as shown by Laura Ingalls Wilder has always been exceptional. In the last quarter of
the twentieth century, domestic security is seemingly unknown, and children struggle to
survive against a background of problem parents.
In Britain, Victorian writers ostensibly set great store by family values, but
nevertheless preferred to keep mothers in the background, while fathers were distant
and often feared; children were shown leading a tightly knit existence in nursery and
schoolroom. This remoteness from the adult world continued into the second half of the
twentieth century, with parents relegated to the background while children enjoyed their
own adventures. By the 1980s adults pose the same threat that they do in the American
book.
Nevertheless the Victorians produced some excellent writing. But its appeal was
limited. For this the elaborate English social stratification must be blamed. The early
and mid-Victorians felt bound to draw attention to class difference, to the duties which
fell upon the privileged, and the need for the lower orders to stay in their own station.
The late Victorians were more relaxed, but liked to describe prosperous nurseries where
the young lived in isolation. It resulted for a long time in class-conscious children’s
books aimed at specific sectors of society.
One book, however, did step out of the usual English mode and circulate more widely.
It was also unusual in presenting family life with parents who both play an equally
active part in their children’s upbringing. This was The History of the Fairchild Family by
Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851), the first part of which was published in 1818, and
which was the first realistic domestic tale for the young. The book was designed to show
‘the importance and effects of a religious education’. The Calvinistic doctrine that is
imparted in Mr Fairchild’s lengthy homilies and prayers, and the methods he uses to
bring his children into a state of grace, make it a curiosity now. Nevertheless it remained
part of juvenile culture in well-conducted families for at least eighty years and was read
in homes that were certainly not Calvinist.
Underlying the religious instruction is an attractive account of family life and of
likeable, frequently naughty children. Indeed, the forbidding chapter head, ‘Story of the
constant bent of man’s heart towards sin’ is a prelude to an entirely convincing story of
mischief. The little Fairchilds, with their squabbles and attempts to resist authority, are