Mrs. Ventum

Raised mostly by a shallow and overindulgent French servant, beautiful Mary and Jane Hornsby grow into their teenage years lacking every virtue, from charity to self-control. Their estranged aunt, Mrs. Ormond, comes to visit when they are fifteen (Mary) and fourteen (Jane), and dismayed at their lack of character, suggests to her brother that they be sent to live with her at her home at Ash House, where she will take on the role of tutor and governess to them. So begins the reform of the two girls by their "amiable tutoress," who sets up a strict schedule for their days, one which encompasses both education and pleasure, and which exposes them to many new ideas. Relating the stories of many unfortunates, both personally known to her and more distantly connected, Mrs. Ormond works upon her nieces' sense of compassion, and breaks down their sense of vanity...

Published in 1801, The Amiable Tutoress, or, The History of Mary and Jane Hornsby: A Tale for Young Persons is a book I tracked down as part of my research for a paper on the influence of Sarah Fielding's 1749 The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy on girls' educational narratives in English children's literature from 1750 through 1825. It is quite a rare book, not having been digitized, and not being held in many libraries worldwide, but I eventually obtained access to the copy at the Morgan Library in New York City. It did not turn out to be a school story, as I had initially thought, but there were some interesting parallels. The didactic trajectory here, in which the girls amend their ways under the tutelage of a wise female example, is reminiscent of the school story, with its benevolent governess figure. The use of inset stories is common in books of this period, while the Abolitionist sentiments expressed by Mrs. Ormond are not at all uncommon either. She states at one point that "it is impossible, if a negro has a soul, and of that there can be no doubt, but that he must have feelings," going on to describe how heartbreaking it must be for Africans to be ripped from all they know, and sold into bondage. What struck me as fairly unusual here, were not the foregoing, which one can find in many English children's books of the 18th and early 19th centuries, but rather the sentiments expressed about the working people of England itself. I cannot think of another example at all similar to Mrs. Ormond's declaration that "without the assistance of the labourer, where should we be? we can neither plow nor harrow, sow nor reap, thrush nor grind. What would then become of us? without the assistance of the peasant, our money would be of no value, and our land would produce only thorns and thistles."

As mentioned, this is a difficult book to track down, so I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it. Most likely to those readers interested in researching very early 19th century English children's literature addressing girls' education.… (meer)