Focusing on "Boys' Own" literature, "Empire Boys" examines how and why a distinct type of combative masculinity triumphed during the heyday of the British Empire. This book reveals the motives that produced this obsessive focus on boyhood. In Victorian Britain many kinds of writing, from the popular juvenile weeklies to parliamentary reports, celebrated boys of all classes as the heroes of their day. Fighting fit, morally upright, and proudly patriotic - these adventurous young men were set forth on imperial missions, civilizing a savage world. Such noble heroes included the strapping lads who brought an end to cannibalism on Ballantyne's "Coral Island" who came into their own in the highly respectable "Boys' Own Paper", and who eventually grew up into the men of Haggard's romances, advancing into the Dark Continent. Joseph Bristow demonstrates why these young heroes have enjoyed a lasting appeal to readers of children's classics by Stevenson, Kipling and Henty, among many others. He shows why the political intent of many of these stories has been obscured by traditional literary criticism, a form of criticism itself moulded by ideals of empire and "Englishness". Throughout, imperial boyhood is related to wide-ranging debates about culture, literacy, realism and romance. A contribution to the study of children's fiction. "Empire Boys" aims to be of interest to students of literature, social history and education.

Empire Boys: Adventures Cl (Reading Popular Fiction)

Bristow

Children's Books

Other

Looks at the differing textual strategies men and women writers have developed to celebrate same-sex living and loving. Examines writings as diverse as those of E.M. Forster, James Baldwin, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Audre Lord, demonstrating how literature has been one of the few cultural spaces in which sexual outsiders have been able to explore forbidden desires. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Sexual Sameness: Textual Cl

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Drug Induced Heart Disease (Meyler and Peck's Drug-Induced Diseases. Volume 5)

Elsevier Science Publishing Company

All Color World of Prehistoric Animals

Smithmark Pub.

The Lion, The Dung Beetle And The Veld Tool Box

Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd

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Books by Bristow