John Strange and Mary Louisa Molesworth 1878 The Christmas Fairy

[emma_in_dream]

I assume this book was a Christmas publication, aimed at the Victorian middle class. It’s nicely illustrated and contains two almost painfully pious short stories. John Strange’s one is about two boys spending Christmas at school and comforting each other in the absence of their families. Mrs Molesworth’s is about some children who are led into a fib by naughty neighbours. Luckily they quickly repent.

I’ve heard of Mrs Molesworth before – perhaps in a Nancy Mitford novel? She certainly typifies the kind of bland, heavy on the improving message kind of children’s literature which we associate with the Victorians.