"A little waif of London, rescued from the streets": melodrama and popular representations of poor children -- From barrack schools to family cottages: creating domestic space and civic identity for poor children -- The parents of "nobody's children": family backgrounds and the causes of poverty -- "That most delicate of all questions in an Englishman's mind": the rights of parents and their continued contact with institutionalized children -- Training "Street Arabs" into British citizens: making artisans and members of empire -- "Their charge and ours": changing notions of child welfare and citizenship
Summary
With his dirty, tattered clothes and hollowed-out face, the image of Oliver Twist is the enduring symbol of the young indigent spilling out of the orphanages and haunting the streets of late-nineteenth-century London. He is the victim of two evils: an aristocratic ruling class and, more directly, neglectful parents. Although poor children were often portrayed as real-life Oliver Twists-either orphaned or abandoned by unworthy parents-they, in fact, frequently maintained contact and were eventually reunited with their families. In Imagined Orphans, Lydia Murdoch focuses on this disc
Notes
"This electronic book contains the following additional features not available in the print version: Links to external informational resources, 6 additional images (and 1 color replacement of print image)."--Copyright and Permissions
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-242) and index
Notes
This volume is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
