The Novels of Frances Hodgson Burnett: In 'the World of Actual Literature.' by Thomas Recchio (review)

• Published in: The Lion and the Unicorn Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 213 - 215
• Main Author: Jenkins, Ruth Y
• Format: Journal Article Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01.04.2020
• Subjects: Browning, Robert (1812-1889); Burnett, Frances Hodgson (1849-1924); Children & youth; Childrens literature; Childrens novels; Collins, Wilkie (1824-1889); Culture; Dickens, Charles (1812-1870); Empathy; Fiction; Innovations; Novels; Plot (Narrative); Realism; Spirituality; Victorian period; Writers; United Kingdom > UK; England; United States > US
• ISSN: 0147-2593; 1080-6563; 1080-6563
• DOI: 10.1353/uni.2020.0021

Beginning with Burnett's forays into writing by engaging with and producing domestic Victorian fiction, Recchio traces her novels in the contexts of American regional fiction, transatlantic alliances, and the aftermath of World War I. Into this structure, he weaves analysis of the fluidity between her fiction written for children and that for adults, to illustrate the recurrence of ideas and styles regardless of intended audience. Recchio's comparison between the novels of Burnett and Gaskell, one of the few female authors he considers in detail, would be even more effective if he had more carefully provided plot details for Mary Barton or recognized the degree to which Gaskell's own innovations expanded the parameters of realism. Ruth Y. Jenkins Ruth Y. Jenkins is Professor of English at CSU, Fresno and author of Victorian Children's Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Reclaiming Myths of Power: The Victorian Spiritual Crisis and Women Writers (Bucknell UP, 1995).