ABSTRACT
This chapter examines books for adults or for general readership, then those specifically for adolescents, in each case emphasising the tendency towards writing in a critical spirit and focusing especially upon the movement towards the standardisation of the boys' school story. The change that can be seen in children's books is symbolised in two books by Mrs F.H. Burnett. In 1886 Little Lord Fauntleroy appeared, in 1911 The Secret Garden. Criticism of schools and discussion of the upbringing of children was in the air around the turn of the century. Nineteenth-century books for girls centered on family and home. The social, political and economic conditions in Britain were vastly different after the First World War from those around the turn of the century, but, particularly in the field of education, the crucial point to be remembered is that many values, attitudes and structures embodying these values were handed on from one period to the next and often with much support.
