ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the treatment of the welfare of children in fiction, particularly in nineteenth century English and American literature. Novels and stories depicting the social condition of children and exploring their psychological problems played an important role. The works discussed are worth recalling because they reflected prevailing attitudes and practices in child care, inspired sympathy for and understanding of children, and contributed to a hostile stereotype of adult child welfare workers. In Sybil, subtitled The Two Nations–the rich and the poor–Benjamin Disraeli presents imaginary characters against a factual depiction of English social and industrial conditions in the 1830s and 1840s. The difference between Sybil, a social novel, and autobiographical ones such as Jane Eyre and David Copperfield is that the latter are primarily concerned with expressing how the heroine and hero feel about the hardships and misfortunes they encounter. The books are based on Charlotte Bronte’s and Charles Dickens’ childhood.
