scholarly children's books

[Mary Flowers Braswell]

Hi Everybody,

I am a medievalist who came to Victorian children's lit by way of Mary
Eliza Haweis's _Chaucer for Children_ (1887) which is a very scholarly
work. It contains explanatory footnotes, a variety of languages, and
references to specific manuscripts and records. My question is: do any
of you know of other such Victorian children's books that would appeal
to such an educated audience?

Many thanks in advance,

Flowers Braswell

--
Mary Flowers Braswell
Professor of English
University of Alabama-Birmingham
Birmingham, AL 35294
(205) 934-8591
fax: (205) 975-8125

[Jenny Schwartzberg]

Well, there's Sidney Lanier who did the Boy's Percy, the Boy's
Froissart, and the Boy's Mabinogion. They are full view at Google
Books, and the Boy's Mabinogion discusses the Welsh language. All give
relatively scholarly background information. There were editions of
King Arthur, ballads, etc. marketed to children that have scholarly
information as well. I don't have time to dig about but there's quite a
strong thread of scholarly works for children in the 19th century.

Google Books has a lot of them in full view, so you can check out their
scholarliness for yourself.

Yours,
Jenny Schwartzberg
The Newberry Library

[Kelly Searsmith, Ph.D.]

Regretfully, I'm more familiar with works that popularized
intellectual / heady stuff for children, especially in the domains of
history, natural science, and literature. The Lambs did Shakespeare,
for instance, and Dickens did A Child's History of England. These
would not have been footnoted, as far as I know -- they were aimed at
making adult material more accessible and acceptable.