Abstract: In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth published a series of books, beginning with Harry and Lucy. Part 1. Being the first part of Early Lessons (1801), and ending with Harry and Lucy concluded (1825). Successive volumes in the series followed her child protagonists as they grew. This essay discusses the series in the context of Edgeworth’s pedagogical principles of ‘gradual instruction’, or the exercise of the child’s faculties by works ‘suited to his capacity’. Edgeworth’s child-centre...
(read more)