ABSTRACT
After the monumental entrance into English-language children’s literature of Grimms’ and Andersen’s tales, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw further innovations from continental Europe. Jules Verne’s science fi ction and, later, Erich Kästner’s urban detective novel for children both contributed to the establishment of new genres in English-language children’s literature, whereas Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio and Johanna Spyri’s Heidi presented familiar tropes and moral instruction in new guises. Subversive undertones colour Pinocchio’s fairy-tale journey into boyhood despite the tale’s overt didactic messages, just as passages of psychological insight signal a move towards modernism in Spyri’s traditional tale of spiritual healing. The translators of all these novels into multiple languages, including English, ensured their ultimate status as international classics.
