Men in Wonderland by Catherine Robson
Fascination with little girls pervaded Victorian culture. This text explores the ways in which various 19th-century British male authors constructed girlhood, and analyzes the nature of their investment in the figure of the girl. In so doing, she reveals the link between the idealization of young girls and a widespread fantasy of male development - a myth suggesting that men become masculine only after an initial feminine stage. Little girls, argues Robson, othus offer an adult male the best opportunity to reconnect with his own lost self. This book contributes to a growing interest in the 19th century's construction of childhood, sexuality and masculinity, and illuminates their complex interconnections in a different light.
What is new about Robson's argument is her contention that for many well-to-do men the image of perfect childhood, lost and desired, remained feminine.. Understood this way, the idealisation of little girls in Victorian culture is an attempt to repossess the remembered self rather than a wish for sexual possession of the other. -- Dinah Birch London Review of Books [An] illuminating study of the relationships that existed between little girls and a whole synod of Victorian middle-class men... What Robson detects in these men is less paedophilic desire and more a melancholy sense of something lost... Ruskin, Carroll, and their fellow enthusiasts, she contends, were chasing their own pasts... -- Matthew Sweet Independent on Sunday This wide-ranging, penetrating investigation contributes significantly to the areas of childhood and gender studies, and 19th century British social history. Library Journal Robson skillfully interweaves the tales of these two seminal Victorian [Ruskin and Carroll] with discussion of child-labour legislation, painting, literature and conduct books. -- Gill Gregory Times Literary Supplement An important addition... Well written, scrupulously researched. Choice [Victorians] certainly had a complicated relationship with sexuality and the young. This book can be recommended for throwing at least some new light on this troubled topic. -- Nicholas Tucker Times Higher Education Supplement A provocative addition to ongoing debates about gender and subjectivity. -- Christine Roth Nineteenth Century Studies An excellent book ... powerfully and persuasively written ... free of jargon, rich in its scholarship, and fully in touch with recent work in a burgeoning field. In all, it is a valuable addition to a growing list of books that help us see the Victorians and their world in fresher, richer ways. -- Carole G. Silver Nineteenth-Century Literature
Catherine Robson is Assistant Professor of English at the University of California. Davis, where she specializes in nineteenth-century British literature and culture. She is also a faculty member of the University of California Dickens Project.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780691004228 |
| ISBN 10 | 0691004226 |
| Title | Men in Wonderland |
| Author | Catherine Robson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
| Year published | 2001-04-29 |
| Number of pages | 264 |
| Prizes | Commended for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2001 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |