ABSTRACT
Most cultural historians agree that the eighteenth century witnessed the birth in Britain of a separate literature especially for children. Not only were the first recognizably modern children’s titles published, but, by the end of the century, children’s literature had become securely established as a profitable and sustainable branch of print culture. Clearly centrally important in this were the productions of mid-century pioneers such as John Newbery. His motto, ‘Delectando Monemus: Instruction with Delight’, appeared boldly at the beginning of his first, and most famous, publication for children, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744). It has since also become the cornerstone of most accounts of the history of children’s literature. In the standard histories of the genre it has been widely argued that the later eighteenth century witnessed a sort of contest between didacticism and delight, a dialectical struggle that was resolved only in the mid-nineteenth century. It was, according to these dialectical histories, only in the age of Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll that books without lessons were finally able to prevail.1
