Children, parents, and the rise of the novel

by T. G. A. Nelson

In Children, Parents, and the Rise of the Novel, T. G. A. Nelson challenges the views of literary critics who contend that the child held little importance as a theme of imaginative literature in the first half of the eighteenth century. Nelson's work follows thirty years of intense discussion of children and childhood by social historians, most of whom see the first half of the eighteenth century as a time of momentous change. In Restoration comedy, for example, the child is a signifier of unwanted burdens that may fall on the parents: wit and cunning are expended in transferring responsibility for children to convenient dupes. However, in the early novel, in periodical literature, and in other discourses of concern, the comic, dismissive response toward children is increasingly marginalized and subjected to negative criticism, especially when attributed to wealthy or socially distinguished characters. In traditional comedy, rejection of children characterized the carefree rake, who,