'Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children's Literature is a highly detailed book about British 19th-century children's literature and the impact of Darwin's evolutionary theory … The book is intended for historians, literary scholars, teachers and students of literature, as well as curious enthusiasts who would like to expand their knowledge of fascinating social changes in the Victorian era.' Helena Horžiæ, Libri and Liberi
Introduction: how the child lost its tail; 1. The child's view of nature: Margaret Gatty and the challenge to natural theology; 2. Amphibious tendencies: Charles Kingsley, Herbert Spencer, and evolutionary education; 3. Generic variability: Lewis Carroll, scientific nonsense, and literary parody; 4. The cure of the wild: Rudyard Kipling and evolutionary adolescence at home and abroad; 5. Home grown: Frances Hodgson Burnett and the cultivation of feminine evolution; Conclusion: recapitulation reconsidered.