''A Child's History of England'' is a

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

. It first appeared in serial form in '' Household Words'', running from 25 January 1851 to 10 December 1853. Dickens also published the work in book form in three volumes: the first volume on 20 December 1851, the second on 25 December 1852 and the third on 24 December 1853. Although the volumes were published in December, each was postdated the following year. They bore the titles: * Volume I. – England from the Ancient Times, to the Death of King John (1852) * Volume II. – England from the Reign of Henry the Third, to the Reign of Richard the Third (1853) * Volume III. – England from the Reign of Henry the Seventh to the Revolution of 1688 (1854) Dickens dedicated the book to "My own dear children, whom I hope it may help, bye and bye, to read with interest larger and better books on the same subject". The history covered the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from then until the accession of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. In a letter to his friend

Douglas William Jerrold Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer. Biography Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Dougla ...

, Dickens confessed that he was composing the book so that he could prevent his children from embracing conservatism:

I am writing a little history of England for my boy ... For I don't know what I should do, if he were to get hold of any conservative or High Church notions; and the best way of guarding against any such horrible result is, I take it, to wring the parrots' neck in his very cradle."

''A Child's History'' was included in the curricula of British schoolchildren well into the 20th century, with successive editions published from 1851 to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

References

External links

Online editions
''A Child's History of England'' Vol. 1
London, Bradbury and Evans, 1852 at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''A Child's History of England'' Vol. 2
London, Bradbury and Evans, 1853 at

''A Child's History of England'' Vol. 3
London, Bradbury and Evans, 1854 at

* London, Chapman & Hall, New York, Charles Scribner's sons, 1905 *
''A Child's History of England''
eBooks@Adelaide 2004 – Easy to read HTML version. {{DEFAULTSORT:Childs History Of England, A 1851 non-fiction books 1850s children's books Books by Charles Dickens Children's history books History books about England Works originally published in Household Words