Child welfare in fiction and fact

This article deals with the treatment of the welfare of children in fiction, particularly in nineteenth century English and American literature. Novels and stories depicting the social condition of children and exploring their psychological problems played an important role in arousing concern for children at a time when childhood was virtually without rights or protection. The works discussed are worth recalling because they reflected prevailing attitudes and practices in child care, inspired sympathy for and understanding of children, and contributed to a hostile stereotype of adult child welfare workers. The authors' favorite remedy for children's problems--keeping them with or getting them back to their own parents or, if that was impossible, placing them in a loving family--accords with current policy objectives that are easier to attain in fiction than in real life.