Fantasy and Reason

Children's Literature in the Eighteenth Century

By: Geoffrey Summerfield

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Hardcover | 1 July 2026 | Edition Number 1

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Hardcover
342 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.06

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First published in 1984, Fantasy and Reason (now with a new foreword by Judith Summerfield) retraces the major philosophical, moral and social factors bearing on childrenâs development in the eighteenth century, leading up to the poetic expression in book V of Wordsworthâs Prelude of a sustained analysis of childrenâs growth, their mental health, and the life of their imaginations.

Wordsworthâs poem is the starting point for this book, which goes back to examine major reputations in the fieldâ"not only publishers such as Newbery but also writers such as Locke, Addison, Steele, Crabbe, Clare, Goldsmith, Sarah Fielding, Watts, Blake, Lamb, Godwin, Maria Edgeworth and Coleridge. In doing so, it uncovers a permanent dialecticâ"one that recurs in various societies at various timesâ"a tension between the claims of fantasy in childhood and the supervening and denying authority of the moralists; implicitly, it re-affirms the âtruthâ of the great folktales and fairy tales, and the legitimacy of imaginative freedom. This book will be a valuable read for students and researchers of childrenâs literature.

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