ABSTRACT
If the modern reader is familiar with the work of Hesba Stretton (Sarah Smith 1832-1911), it is likely to be in the general context of her reputation as a writer of Evangelical ‘street Arab’ stories.1 Her name is permanently linked with the highly successful – and deceptively simple – ‘waif’ narrative, Jessica’s First Prayer (see Figure 7.1), published in book form by the Religious Tract Society (RTS) in 1867 and followed by other famous titles such as Little Meg’s Children (1868) and Alone in London (1869). Bibliographies and histories of children’s literature, whilst acknowledging her influence in this field, have concentrated on limited aspects of her work. Commentators have emphasised the contemporary popularity of her narratives, but have, for the most part, only briefly discussed – or dismissed – them as belonging to a body of didactic, simplistic and, to modern taste, overly religious and sentimental writing. Although the more detailed accounts by M. Nancy Cutt and J.S. Bratton, written over 20 years ago, indicated the complexity and socio-historical significance of Stretton’s writing, few writers have engaged with the issues raised.2 The range of Stretton’s work – which includes numerous full-length novels (some for the secular market), as well as stories and articles of journalism for periodicals such as Dickens’s Household Words and All The Year Round – has remained largely unexplored, its complex nature and wide-ranging implications underestimated or overlooked.
