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Talking Animals in British Children's Fiction, 1786-1914. By Tess Cosslett. Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2006.
Reviewed by Susan Stewart
The title of Tess Cosslett's study, Talking Animals in British Children's Fiction, 1786-1914, is an apt description of the contents. The study is, however, much more than that, for Cosslett offers a meticulous study of the social, cultural, religious, scientific, and historical influences that led to the emergence and codification of animal stories written for children. As she writes, the animal stories published during this time frame "engage with some of the big issues of their day," including "nature, class, gender, [and] empire" (4). They also deal with Victorian ideals and sensibilities regarding scientific materialism, evolution, religion, and the treatment of animals. Thus, Cosslett examines numerous texts ranging from ones that most scholars of children's literature will know (Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, Charles Kingsley's Water Babies, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, and Beatrix Potters's The Complete Tales) and texts that are probably somewhat obscure (animal "autobiographies" such as E. Burrows's Tuppy, or the Autobiography of a Donkey, Aldred Elwes's The Adventures of a Dog, Lucy Thornton's The Story of a Poodle, by Himself, and His Mistress, and others).
As Cosslett notes, chronological and genre considerations guide the organization of the study. In chronological terms, she traces the history of talking animal stories and examines the historical milieu that surrounded their emergence. She looks to Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Newbery, and others to frame the eighteenth-century discussions concerning education and attitudes toward childhood. This in itself is familiar territory for many; however, Cosslett's text asks us to look at these contexts differently by refocusing our attention on the significance of their work in terms of animal stories. For instance, Locke's endorsement of Aesop's Fables, because they encourage compassionate attitudes toward animals, likely influenced Trimmer's Fabulous Histories (later published as The History of the Robins), which "instil[s] both social morality, and compassion for animals" and which...