Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825)
Author of Hymns in Prose for Children
About the Author
Image credit: 1775 Wedgewood cameo of Anna Letitia Barbauld
Series
Works by Anna Letitia Barbauld
The collected works of Anna Letitia Barbauld. Volume II: Writings for children and young people (2023) 1 copy
Extracts concerning the importance of religion and public worship to civil society. With remarks 1 copy
Poems. 1 copy
Hymns in Prose for Children, by the Author of Lessons for Children. by the Author of Lessons for Children (2023) 1 copy
The Mouse's Petition 1 copy
Associated Works
Great British Tales of Terror: Gothic Stories of Horror and Romance 1765-1840 (1972) — Contributor — 86 copies
The Midnight Inkwell: Sinister Short Stories by Classic Women Writers (2023) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Barbauld, Anna Letitia
- Other names
- Barbauld, Anna Laetitia
Aikin, Anna Letitia
Aikin, Anna Laetitia - Birthdate
- 1743-06-20
- Date of death
- 1825-03-09
- Gender
- female
- Education
- at home
- Occupations
- poet
essayist
literary critic
editor - Organizations
- Palgrave Academy
Bluestocking Society - Relationships
- Aikin, John (brother)
Aikin, Lucy (niece)
Opie, Amelia (friend) - Short biography
- Anna Letitia Aikin was the daughter of the headmaster of the Dissenting academy in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, who was also a Presbyterian minister. She was called "Nancy," an 18th-century nickname for Anna, all her life. The family enjoyed a comfortable standard of living. Anna was taught the classics of Latin and Greek and many other subjects at home by her father. In 1773 she published her first book of poetry, and became a respected literary figure as a result. The following year she married Rochemont Barbauld, a grandson of French Huguenots and a former student of her father. The couple established and ran a boarding school at Palgrave, Suffolk. Her Hymns in Prose (1781) were written especially for the students there. Anna Letitia Barbauld had a successful writing career at a time when there were few female professional writers. Her poetry is considered foundational to the development of Romanticism in England. In addition, she wrote radical political pieces, especially at the onset of the French Revolution. An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (1790) shocked readers who discovered that it was produced by a woman. In 1791, she published her Epistle to William Wilberforce Esq,. On the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade. In 1792, she issued an anti-war piece entitled Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation. Anna's husband became violent and died insane in 1808. Her longest poetic work, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (1812), a gloomy prognosis of the country's current state and future, effectively ended her career because it criticized British involvement in the Napoleonic wars. Anna Letitia Barbauld was largely forgotten until the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1980s renewed interest in her works and restored her place in literary history.
- Nationality
- England
UK - Birthplace
- Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Kibworth-Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, UK (birth)
Palgrave, Suffolk, England, UK
London, England, UK - Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Published in 1787, this slim volume was the first of four such books, each intended to present lessons for children in the targeted age group. The methodology employed by Anna Letitia Barbauld was one she used in teaching her own nephew and foster son, Charles, to read, and the child addressed in the book is named for him. It is written in simple language, with large type, and contains multiple simple statements and admonishments, from "little boys do not eat grass," to "little boys must show more always come when mamma calls them." Part instruction manual on proper behavior, part informative exploration of the world, and part engaging depiction of play, it is a forerunner of the early reader...
It is impossible to overstate how revolutionary Barbauld's readers were, in the development of pedagogy in the Anglophone world, and her books were used in early childhood instruction for many generations. She was arguably one of the first children's authors to consider the actual child's needs, when it comes to how a book was structured and presented, insisting on large type and wide margins. The lexical choices were similarly well-considered, as the book progresses from mostly single-syllable words to more complex ones. Although full of admonishment, her books are not pious, having rather the rationalism so characteristic of much 18th-century children's literature.
It is this last aspect, I think, as well as the gender of the author, that caused her to eventually fall out of favor, and to disappear from the canon. Her work, and those of such authors as Sarah Trimmer, was so successful in its day that it attracted the envy and spite of others, especially the male Romantics, who loathed the women Rationalists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In a famous letter to Coleridge, the Romantic essayist Charles Lamb (himself the author of a number of children's books) lamented the disappearance of "the old classics of the nursery" in favor the "insignificant & vapid knowledge" found in Mrs. B's work. He concluded: "Think what you would have been now, if instead of being fed with Tales and old wives fables in childhood, you had been crammed with Geography & Natural History? Damn them. I mean the cursed Barbauld Crew, those Blights & Blasts of all that is Human in man & child."
I find this simply fascinating! Not only does it upend the usual stereotype of men being the rational ones and women the emotional and romantic, but it points to the historical reality that, whichever side men were on, was usually the winning one. In point of fact, the Romantic notion of the child - innocent, uncorrupted, full of natural wonder and goodness - is the one that is still dominant in western culture to this day, having supplanted the Rationalists' notion of the child as a blank slate, which had in turn supplanted the religious idea of the child as a natural sinner (i.e.: naturally bad) in need of salvation. This is a useful reminder that something accepted without question today - i.e.: the nature of a child - is a very recent cultural creation. As for the feud between the male Romantics and the female Rationalists, as a contemporary reader considering these questions, I think there is room for both of their approaches. I certainly value fantasy and romance, but I also value knowledge and reason. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it seems clear that the Romantic attack on the "cursed Barbauld crew" had a lot to do with the fact that these women authors were outselling their male counterparts. In this respect, it reminds me of recent attacks upon J.K. Rowling by such critics as Harold Bloom, angry that some woman children's author should be commanding so much attention, in the world of letters.
This is one I would recommend to any reader with an interest in 18th-century English children's literature, or in the history of early childhood education in the Anglophone world. I don't believe this separate edition is widely available (I read it through my university), but I believe that bind-up editions of all four volumes of Barbauld's lessons can be tracked down. show less
It is impossible to overstate how revolutionary Barbauld's readers were, in the development of pedagogy in the Anglophone world, and her books were used in early childhood instruction for many generations. She was arguably one of the first children's authors to consider the actual child's needs, when it comes to how a book was structured and presented, insisting on large type and wide margins. The lexical choices were similarly well-considered, as the book progresses from mostly single-syllable words to more complex ones. Although full of admonishment, her books are not pious, having rather the rationalism so characteristic of much 18th-century children's literature.
It is this last aspect, I think, as well as the gender of the author, that caused her to eventually fall out of favor, and to disappear from the canon. Her work, and those of such authors as Sarah Trimmer, was so successful in its day that it attracted the envy and spite of others, especially the male Romantics, who loathed the women Rationalists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In a famous letter to Coleridge, the Romantic essayist Charles Lamb (himself the author of a number of children's books) lamented the disappearance of "the old classics of the nursery" in favor the "insignificant & vapid knowledge" found in Mrs. B's work. He concluded: "Think what you would have been now, if instead of being fed with Tales and old wives fables in childhood, you had been crammed with Geography & Natural History? Damn them. I mean the cursed Barbauld Crew, those Blights & Blasts of all that is Human in man & child."
I find this simply fascinating! Not only does it upend the usual stereotype of men being the rational ones and women the emotional and romantic, but it points to the historical reality that, whichever side men were on, was usually the winning one. In point of fact, the Romantic notion of the child - innocent, uncorrupted, full of natural wonder and goodness - is the one that is still dominant in western culture to this day, having supplanted the Rationalists' notion of the child as a blank slate, which had in turn supplanted the religious idea of the child as a natural sinner (i.e.: naturally bad) in need of salvation. This is a useful reminder that something accepted without question today - i.e.: the nature of a child - is a very recent cultural creation. As for the feud between the male Romantics and the female Rationalists, as a contemporary reader considering these questions, I think there is room for both of their approaches. I certainly value fantasy and romance, but I also value knowledge and reason. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it seems clear that the Romantic attack on the "cursed Barbauld crew" had a lot to do with the fact that these women authors were outselling their male counterparts. In this respect, it reminds me of recent attacks upon J.K. Rowling by such critics as Harold Bloom, angry that some woman children's author should be commanding so much attention, in the world of letters.
This is one I would recommend to any reader with an interest in 18th-century English children's literature, or in the history of early childhood education in the Anglophone world. I don't believe this separate edition is widely available (I read it through my university), but I believe that bind-up editions of all four volumes of Barbauld's lessons can be tracked down. show less
Bertrand rides across the moor at night and comes upon a house. For whatever reason, he investigates. Strange sounds accompany his long journey on a staircase. At the end, he finds a coffin and a woman sits up from in the coffin. She kisses him, and they go on to reside in the house together.
The story is very short, but good atmosphere. I wish it was more widely known so I could find someone else's interpretation of the ending. I also question why Bertrand feels the need to investigate the show more house when he's having miniature heart attacks at every sound. Usually, there's enough context in horror stories for questionable decisions to fit. Still, this is a good, atmospheric oddity. show less
The story is very short, but good atmosphere. I wish it was more widely known so I could find someone else's interpretation of the ending. I also question why Bertrand feels the need to investigate the show more house when he's having miniature heart attacks at every sound. Usually, there's enough context in horror stories for questionable decisions to fit. Still, this is a good, atmospheric oddity. show less
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- Rating
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