the secrets of the human condition. Hardy (1840–1928) empowered his two boy heroes
to seize destiny and redirect it (the stream that generates mill-power in two rural
villages): in their exploits they explore the organic subterranean world of the Mendip
caves where nature’s supremacy is challenged. They bring upon themselves moral and
intellectual decisions difficult to address. Hardy’s child characters are found in his
poetry rather than in his adult fiction. Defoe, in A Tour of the Whole Island of Great
Britain (1724–1726) mentioned the little river that drives twelve mills within a quarter
mile of the Mendips, and Hardy chose this secret place, a hidden landscape, to attract
young readers, painstakingly creating a featured, speaking landscape. Steve possesses
the fatal ingenuity and enterprise of Henchard, the Mayor of Casterbridge, in the book
which Hardy was writing during that period. Wilful decisions in youth bring fatal
consequences in the adult fiction. Henchard’s role has parallels with the harsh miller
who seeks to reaffirm his mastery by cruelty to his apprentice. Hardy’s text for children
allows the oppressed to outwit the master; in the adult text, Henchard’s rival is the
boyish Farfrae, whose light-footed dancing and tender singing voice are illuminated by
Hardy’s proto-cinematic devices, or visual compositions, which capture all the tensions
present in each narrative.
Both Wilde (1854–1900) and Kipling (1865–1936) have made important contributions
to children’s literature, Wilde drawing upon the fairy tale tradition and Kipling in part
upon the fable tradition. Wilde composed fairy tales for his sons, believing this to be a
father’s duty. He read them Verne, Stevenson and Kipling, authors whom he admired,
and told them of huge disconsolate carp in Lough Corrib, where the family home was
situated; these would not stir from the depths unless he called them with traditional
Irish songs. The redemptive patterning of tales like ‘The happy prince’ and ‘The star
child’ reflects ideas in De Profundis (1905). Egotists are roused to experience compassion
and are reconciled with nature. ‘The remarkable rocket’ parodies Wilde’s major concerns
of egotism and philistine materialism with the wit of his major dramatic work (1892–
1895): it draws on folk and fairy tale, including Andersen and Grimm, Lewis Carroll, art
history and contemporary controversies such as the Ruskin-Whistler trial (1877). Nine
fairy tales were originally published in two volumes: The Happy Prince (1888) and The
House of Pomegranates (1891), the latter consisting of elegies rather than parables,
opposing scientific material existence with the redemptive pastoral world of the artist.
Pessimistic elements in the protagonist’s trials and transfigurations in ‘The star child’
are echoed in the mythic Dorian Gray (1890) and Salome (1894).
Kipling, remarkable both for his range of fiction, his pioneering of the short story, his
fables, historical fiction, travel writing, and for his achievement as a modernist,
provoked widely differing critical responses. The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second
Jungle Book (1895) were termed stronger than Aesop, yet Beerbohm cruelly caricatured
him. Wilde rated him ‘a genius who drops his aspirates and our first authority on the
second rate’ (Green 1971:59). J.M.Barrie criticised his coarse journalese, calling him the
man from Nowhere in 1890. His work, particularly his relish for jargon, was parodied
and his reputation as a prophet resented. Yet T.S.Eliot recognised him as a major writer
in 1919 and Henry James acknowledged his power of attracting readers of all social
classes. The vigour of his style brought a new power to literature at the close of the
century, but, to the Aesthetic movement, appeared an unwelcome and disruptive force.
412 MAJOR AUTHORS’ WORK FOR CHILDREN