''Eric, or, Little by Little'' is a book by Frederic W. Farrar, first edition 1858. It was published by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh and London. The book deals with the descent into moral turpitude of a boy at a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

or English public school of that era. The author's preface to the fourth edition reads:

Summary

Eric Williams is a son of a British colonial official and his wife stationed in India. As was common at the time of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, Eric is sent to Britain to be educated at a boarding school—in this case Roslyn School, where he encounters the good and bad aspects of the traditional public school. Eric little by little title page

He slowly gets beaten down by being punished erroneously for wrongdoings, getting bullied and such things as drinking, smoking and cheating. The end is tragic for Eric, as he loses everything.

Background and reception

Along with Talbot Baines Reed's '' The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's'' and Thomas Hughes' '' Tom Brown's Schooldays'', this book was one of the three most popular boys' books in mid-Victorian Britain. The school is a thinly disguised cross between Farrar's own school King William's College in the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, and Marlborough College, at which he was the master. The book is credited with helping to increase the popularity of the first name "

Eric The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-N ...

" in English-speaking countries—although not with Eric Arthur Blair (the writer and journalist

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

) who disliked his given name because of its association with Farrar's book. In later years, it fell out of favour, in part because of its religious earnestness. For example, in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's '' Stalky & Co.'', published late in 1899, the protagonist Beetle and his friends frequently made fun of "Eric", e.g. E. Nesbit included it in a list of didactic children's books which were "impossible to read."

Notes

References

* Carpenter, Humphrey and Mari Prichard. ''Oxford Companion to Children's Literature''. Oxford University Press, 1997. * Zipes, Jack (ed) et al. ''The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: The Traditions in English.'' W. W. Norton, 2005. * Zipes, Jack (ed.). ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Volumes 1-4''. Oxford University Press, 2006. * Watson, Victor, ''The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English''. Cambridge University Press, 2001. * Demmers, Patricia (ed). ''From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children's Literature to 1850'', Oxford University Press, 2003
Oxford University Press
. * St. John, Judith. ''The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, 1566-1910, A Catalogue'', Toronto Public Library.

External links

Project Gutenberg edition

PDF edition
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

British Library: Children's Literature

British Library: Integrated Catalogue
.
Copac: Academic & National Library Catalogue
at the University of Manchester.
Library of Congress Online Catalog

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eric, Or, Little By Little British children's novels 19th-century British children's literature 1858 British novels A & C Black books Novels set in boarding schools Victorian novels 1850s children's books English novels Children's novels set in schools Children's books set in England