ABSTRACT
In chapter 1 we saw how modern children's fiction has its roots in the nineteenth century and how the first major tradition to produce entertaining narratives for young readers was that which is characterised by the adventure story and the school story. In many respects the evolution of the former is a continuation of the tradition that had already been well established by Sir Walter Scott. From the mid nineteenth century adventure stories were being written specifically for juveniles as well as adults. The narratives of the traditional adventure story writers might well be regarded as the nineteenth-century boys' equivalent of what Nash (1990:56) calls the ‘action-book’. Nash cites, amongst others, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum and Wilbur Smith. All of these writers were named in Knowles's 1989–90 survey and they are the natural successors of John Buchan, Sapper and Dornford Yates and thus of Henty and W.E.Johns. The adventure story, with additional violence and now sex, is alive and well for the adult (and adolescent) reader.
