Her First Stories for Children
[EDGEWORTH, Maria.]
The Parent’s Assistant; or, Stories for Children. Part I. Containing, the little Dog Trusty; or, the Liar and Boy of Truth. The Orange Man; or the honest Boy and the Thief. Tarlton. Lazy Lawrence. The False Key: and Barring-out. To which is prefixed, an Address to Parents. The second Edition.
Second edition, very rare, of the first collection of children’s stories by Maria Edgeworth, revised and expanded from the first edition of the same year – this is Part I only, but only one complete set survives from the first two editions (see below). The first edition of Part I had only five stories, separately paginated; this edition added the longest story, ‘The Barring Out; or, Party Spirit’ (pp. 149–226), and made a number of smaller corrections throughout (see Pollard). Part II was published in two volumes, each of three stories; by the third edition (1800), the collection now comprised seventeen stories in six volumes; the first two stories here were cut and transplanted into Early Lessons (1801). ‘Edgeworth’s convincing psychological portraits are matched by equally realistic depictions of her characters’ social milieux’ (Hockliffe project online). The latter are quite varied, and while the moral emphasis is on hard work and honesty, the rewards are rarely those of social elevation.
Read more