Romanticism And Childrens Literature In Nineteenth Century England

In England at the turn of the 19th century, the advent of Romanticism coincided with major changes in ideas about children and childhood, eventually resulting in a great flowering of children's literature. In contrast to the previous century's stern moral tales, children's books began to appeal to the unsullied powers of perception, cognition and creativity thought by the Romantics to reside in pre-adolescents, and also to the anxieties of adults who longed to reclaim their own lost childhood selves.