American Sunday School Union

A boisterous young girl who liked to go sledding with the boys - much to the chagrin of her brothers - rather than finish her various sewing projects, Fanny Mansfield was an essentially goodhearted child with some significant flaws. Chief amongst these was an inconstancy that prevented her from finishing anything she started, a certain indifference to praying and the spiritual life, and a somewhat too malleable personality, that allowed her to be easily led astray. When lovely, pious Cousin Ellen came to live with the Mansfields after being orphaned, she provided a good example of how to behave, but although Fanny tried to mend her ways, it wasn't easy. When the family went on a holiday to Meadow-bank, the large farm owned by Mr. Cleveland, the husband of Fanny's eldest sister Catharine, our little heroine fell in with the wicked Gertrude, a shallow, spoiled and dishonest child who led her into many scrapes. Eventually Fanny confessed her wrongdoing to her mother, who was suitably shocked, and then she asked God for forgiveness. The Mansfields returned home, and Ellen, who had been secretly sick for some time, went into a decline. Her eventual death was mourned by everyone, especially Fanny, to whom she had been an adopted sister, and for whom she had provided an enduring role model...

Published in 1847 by the American Sunday School Union - the actual author is uncredited - Fanny Mansfield; or, The Adopted Sister is pretty standard mid-19th-century American fare for children, heavy on the Christian morality, with a saintly invalid to show the way to the poor young sinners. I was intrigued by the title, as the name of the heroine suggested Jane Austen's classic Mansfield Park to me, given that the heroine of that novel was also named Fanny, and that the home in which Austen's orphaned heroine came to live also bore the name Mansfield. Despite that superficial similarity - perhaps deliberate, to draw readers in? - there is no other real connection between the books. Some of the moralizing here felt over the top to me, probably because it was so overt, and Ellen is such a pattern-card of propriety that the reader might want to shake her. One can understand how an active young girl like Fanny might have looked askance at a peer her own age who liked to read gloomy books like Rise and Progress and Saints' Rest. On the other hand, some of the vices which Fanny needs to be led away from - namely, a certain snobbery against those less fortunate than herself, as well as a willingness to lie and go against her own moral compass, when urged on by someone like Gertrude - would be considered objectionable by many people, whatever their religious outlook. This is the second book I have read from the American Sunday School Union, after Christmas Holidays; or, A Visit at Home (1827), and I think I prefer it overall, as it has a more developed story than that earlier book. Although I wouldn't describe these as personal favorites, I do find them very interesting, in that they open a window into the lives of children in other times, and I certainly hope to read more at some point. Recommended to anyone interested in 19th-century American children's literature and/or the American Sunday School Union.… (meer)

Published by the American Sunday-School Union in 1827, this brief novella for children relates the story of the two young Barrington brothers, who have been away at school, and who journey home for the Christmas holidays. Catching the stagecoach from the Academy in Abington, Howard, a compassionate and somewhat over-sensitive boy of twelve, and George, a bold and daring boy of ten, with a penchant for getting into scrapes because of his short temper, provide a study in contrast. Arriving at their father's mansion in the city, the boys are warmly greeted by their parents and younger sisters, and soon settle into the family circle. The crux of the brief story - the book is a scant thirty-five pages - revolves around the shopping expedition which occurs on the following day, as Howard, George and their sister Emma are each given a bank note by their mother, and the freedom to select their own gifts. Emma returns with a red morocco work box, full of all of the things she needs for her sewing, while George, named for George Washington, returns with a gun, which he justifies by referencing his namesake, as well as General La Fayette. Howard, in the meantime, has purchased Walker's Dictionary, a copy of the New Testament, and a gift for Tom Sanders, an impoverished young boy living near his school at Abington. Touched by his generosity, as well as by the devotion he exhibits in inscribing his Testament - "A Christmas gift from my dear mother, may her son derive profit from the perusal of it, that he may become a blessing to her" - his parents praise him, and add to his gift to the Sanders family. The bulk of the remainder of the book is given over to the Christmas Day recital of the story of the Nativity, in which Mrs. Barrington asks her children a series of questions, eliciting the narrative piece by piece...

Although I wouldn't exactly say that I enjoyed reading Christmas Holidays; or, A Visit at Home for its own sake, it was quite fascinating, in that it opened up a window into the children's books being produced in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Most, if not all of these books were religious in nature, and the American Sunday-School Union was an influential publisher in the field. The didactic intention here is fairly obvious - unlike the current day, when our (inevitable) didacticism is kept hidden, the creators of children's books at that time saw nothing at all problematic in the idea that children's literature was meant to inculcate good (read: Christian) values - and requires little commentary. Clearly the child reader was meant to learn a lesson, not just from the story of the Barrington children's own doings - girls should be industrious little seamstresses, boys should show piety, and devotion to their mothers - but also from the extended passages in which the characters relate the Christmas story to one another. Some of the little details here - the devotion shown to General George Washington, for instance, described in the text as "the beloved father of our country" - reflect the cultural preoccupations of the day. Reverence for the Founding Fathers was a strong current in the public life of America during the 19th century, and would have been particularly strong in texts aimed at young people. After all, Parson Weems' famous biography of Washington, first published in 1800, and containing the apocryphal tale of the famous cherry tree, was partially aimed at children, and was intended (amongst other things) to instruct them in important moral values. The importance of Christian values in everyday life also comes through quite clearly, particularly as Mrs. Barrington draws lessons from the Christmas story, and illustrates them for her children in (then) contemporary ways. I'm not sure to whom I would recommend this one. Certainly not contemporary children, but perhaps to those who, like myself, have an interest in historical children's literature, and the lessons it can teach us, the modern readers, about the nature of society in the time in which it was created.… (meer)