VI
The Life and Adventures of a Fly, “supposed to have been written by himself”. Price Sixpence. (E. Newbery’s list, 1789.)
Another edition, with cuts by John Bewick, was printed in 1790 (Bewick Collector).
The Young Misses’ Magazine was reviewed in the Critical Review, Aug., 1757. It consists of “Dialogues of a wise Governess with her Pupils”, and was almost certainly inspired by Miss Fielding’s Governess. The studies of Madame de Beaumont’s pupils, under the names of Ladi Sensée, Ladi Spirituelle, Ladi Tempête, etc., although they represent types, are made from life.
Madame de Beaumont also wrote “Moral Tales”, designed to counteract supposed dangers in Richardson’s novels. “The whole,” she says, “is drawn from the pure source of Nature, which never fails to move the heart.”
Other books by “M. P.” include:
Anecdotes of a Boarding School, Anecdotes of a Little Family, and Letters from a Mother to her Children.
See below:—“Adventures” of things, by “S. S.”
Other stories by Elizabeth Sandham are:
The Happy Family at Eason House, 1822; The History of Elizabeth Woodville, 1822; The Orphan, n.d. and The Twin Sisters, n.d.
Other books by Arabella Argus:
The Adventures of a Donkey (1815); Further Adventures of a Donkey (1821); Ostentation and Liberality (1821).
(a) On the occasion of a literary dispute at Reynolds’s house, Mrs. Trimmer, then Miss Kirby, fifteen years old, produced from her pocket a copy of Paradise Lost. Johnson marked his appreciation of the incident as recorded above.
(b) From 1802 to 1804, Mrs. Trimmer edited The Guardian of Education (published monthly) which exercised a kind of censorship over children’s books. A reference by Mrs. T. to Perrault’s Tales, which she had read as a child, called forth the criticism of a correspondent who denounced “Cinderella” in particular as encouraging envy, jealousy, vanity and other evil passions in children. Mrs. Trimmer’s principles forced her to agree with this stern moralist.
Bird stories by Mr. Kendall include:
The Crested Wren. E. Newbery, 1799; The Swallow. E. Newbery, 1800; The Sparrow and The Canary Bird are also mentioned in The Stories of Senex; or, Little Histories of Little People, by the same author.
Elizabeth Sandham also wrote:
The Adventures of a Bullfinch. J. Harris, 1809.
and The Perambulations of a Bee and a Butterfly, 1812.
Other “adventures” of things:
The Adventures of a Silver Penny. Price 6d. E. Newbery. (Advertised in the London Chronicle, Dec. 21-29, 1787, “just published”); The Adventures of a Doll, by Mary Mister, 1816; Memoirs of a Peg Top, by S. S. Author of The Adventures of a Pincushion. Marshall’s list, c. 1788.