A Child's History of England

This popular three-volume work, originally serialised in Household Words between 1851 and 1853, reflects the great novelist's political outlook.

Charles Dickens (Author)

9781108076777, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 March 2015

228 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.3 kg

This three-volume history of England from before the Roman conquest through to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine Household Words between 1851 and 1853. The text was published in book form in the same period, although each volume was post-dated to the following year. Dickens dedicated the work to his own children, intending it to be a stepping stone to more substantial histories. The volumes were popular with readers for decades, and were used in British schools well into the twentieth century. Dickens employs his signature style to bring events and personalities to life, making use of vivid similes, unabashedly partisan language and direct speech, as well as the occasional moral lesson. Volume 1 covers the period from the campaigns of Julius Caesar up to the close of the reign of the 'miserable brute' King John.

1. Ancient England and the Romans
2. Ancient England under the early Saxons
3. England under the good Saxon, Alfred, and Edward the Elder
4. England under Athelstan and the six boy-kings
5. England under Canute the Dane
6. England under Harold Harefoot, Hardicanute, and Edward the Confessor
7. England under Harold the Second, and conquered by the Normans
8. England under William the First, the Norman conqueror
9. England under William the Second, called Rufus
10. England under Henry the First, called Fine-Scholar
11. England under Matilda and Stephen
12. England under Henry the Second
13. England under Richard the First, called the Lion-Heart
14. England under John, called Lackland.

Subject Areas: Philosophy & theory of education [JNA]