ABSTRACT
Books for potential readership were what the trade simply called rewards, and thousands upon thousands of them were produced. Influential individuals were often called to their work by deep feeling, partaking of the second wave of the Evangelical movement, which blended a renewed religious conviction with that strong concern for human suffering which was the hallmark of right feeling in the 1840s. The allegorical dimension of the tales and also their frequent recourse to the patterns of romance do extend them beyond the stifling confines of the nursery, offering fantasy and some sort of imaginative richness to an audience used to much drabber fare. Sara Smith, who wrote as 'Hesba Stretton', was perhaps the typical lady Sunday school writer. She took to writing magazine stories to improve her status and the family budget. Thus, the fantasies and allegorical tales of A Lady of England (ALOE) and the romances of humble life of Hesba Stretton are archetypal.
