Hannah More: The First Victorian by Anne Stott (review)

Abstract

MLR, ioo.i, 2005 203 the West, the savage and the civilized' (p. 120). Through these analyses, Schacker suggests that although England may not have practised such 'nationalist uses and abuses of folklore' (p. 3) as some other European countries did, these tale collections 'unified a diverse and rapidly expanding readership in their enjoyment of imported tales' (p. 2) by offering'opportunities forreflection on the oral Other, but also on the modern self,on the transformation of popular culture, on the nature of "Englishness" in the midst of rapid social, cultural, and technological change' (p. 12), since 'the construction of "identity" is always a fundamentally contrastive process' (p. 3). Schacker thus shows how what is often accepted as 'truth', such as the 'national frame of reference' (p. 139) of folktales, is not absolute but historical. She emphasizes the importance of contextualization and rightlycriticizes those who do not realize that 'Framing, textual practice, and interpretation are inextricably linked' (p. 142) and whose argument becomes circular when they discuss the 'significance' of fairy tales without paying attention to the process of their 'entextualization'. As she points out, 'conceptions of the nature of popular tales and assumptions regarding the socio cul? tural environments in which they arise have shaped the destiny ofthe tales as written texts; equally, the formtheyhave been given on the page leans toward particular modes of analysis' (pp. 143-44). I*1order to 'demonstrate how the facts of publishing his? tory enliven our understanding of how these objects [tale collections] came to be, the various forms they took, and the ways we make sense of them in the present' (p. 148), Schacker makes use of a variety of materials from both text and context, such as the narrative text, illustrations, annotations, introductory essays, the writers' biographical information, letters, reviews, and publication data. However, one should remember that 'the facts of publishing history' are themselves framed narratives. The way she formsher argument around chronology as ifitwere natural can be called into question, along with her progressive view of literary-critical history. She problematically as? sumes authorial intentions as part of 'the various forces that shaped these texts' (p. 149) and occasionally mentions generalized reader response, despite her claim in the end that 'we don't know how the resultant books were read' (p. 149). All the same, Na? tional Dreams explores a largely unnoticed fieldand on the whole weaves a convincing, interesting narrative about those fairy-tale collections and Victorian culture, a narra? tive which can influence contemporary reading of the tales as well as of critical texts. University of Reading Yuko Ashitagawa Hannah More: The First Victorian. By Anne Stott. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. xxiii +384 pp. ?25. ISBN 0-19-924532-0. When that shrewd party animal, Hester Thrale, drew up a listof characteristics ofher acquaintances, rating them out of twenty,Hannah More got full marks for worth of heart and knowledge, half marks for good humour, seven for conversational powers, and zero for 'person, mien and manners'. Given that More was almost certainly as boring as Mrs Thrale suggests, Anne Stott's biography manages to provide a remarkably entertaining and readable account of her life, packed full of anecdote and fascinating historical insights. Born in Bristol in 1745 to an undistinguished schoolmaster's family,by the end of the century Hannah More had become a byword forprim middle-class respectability. Mothers swore by her teachings in bringing up recalcitrant daughters and her most celebrated work, Coelebs in Search of a Wife, attained an almost biblical status in providing a guide for model female behaviour. T, a girl, was educated at random', she claimed. Perhaps it was in resistance to such a haphazard approach that she became a pioneer in promoting a system of female edu? cation that, as Stott convincingly argues, created the template for girls' schools that 204 Reviews existed into the twentieth century. Together with her sisters, notably Patty, who was a gifted teacher, More started her firstschool for girls in Bristol, educating among others the subsequently notorious Mary 'Perdita' Robinson, glamour puss, actress, and mistress of the Prince of Wales. Stage-struck, More started her literary career as a dramatist, encouraged...