The Writings of Hesba Stretton: Reclaiming the Outcast (review)

Victorianists usually think of Hesba Stretton, when they think of her at all, as an evangelical writer of didactic religious tracts for children, including Jessica's First Prayer (1867), Little Meg's Children (1868), and Alone in London (1869). Certainly, these "'waif' narratives" were her most popular and influential works (1): Jessica sold almost four hundred thousand copies, was translated into fifteen languages, and was adapted for silent films—twice. But even as it reiterates the tracts' influence, Elaine Lomax's new book challenges this limited view of Stretton, substituting a more complete and complex vision of the author's range and significance.

Thus, although Lomax's book is published in Ashgate's Studies in Childhood series, it moves beyond Stretton's children's books, examining her largely neglected writing for the adult market, including numerous full-length novels published by religious and secular presses, as well as articles and short stories in mainstream periodicals such as Household Words. To counter the image of Stretton as a didactic evangelical propagandist, moreover, Lomax stresses the complexity and nuance of her narratives, the breadth of her social and political interests, and her links to mainstream secular discourses. Lomax brings to her recuperative project extensive research not only into the author's published work, but also unpublished manuscripts including journals and correspondence.

In part one of her study, Lomax discusses the biographical context, publication history, and critical reception of Stretton's works. While the biography reveals some new information about Stretton's education, charitable involvement, and social attitudes, it also indulges in much speculation substantiated only by decontextualized references to Stretton's fiction: the word "perhaps" appears too often. Also, Lomax's decision to organize the biographical material by topic—education, maternal influence, religion, and writing—rather than chronologically obscures changes in attitudes and affiliations over the course of Stretton's long career. The subsequent discussion of Stretton's relationships with publishers, critics, and audiences is better documented, providing valuable context for the reconsideration of Stretton's writing and emphasizing her connections with major figures in religious and literary circles.

In part two Lomax engages more directly with the fiction, again organizing the discussion thematically. In successive chapters she analyzes Stretton's treatment of the image of the child, sexuality and the fallen woman, motherhood and women's rights, and the position of various other "outcast" populations, including gypsies, Jews, and so-called savages. In the final and perhaps most intriguing section of the book, Lomax investigates Stretton's involvement with Russian émigrés in the 1890s and her late novels about a persecuted Russian religious minority. In each section, Lomax contextualizes Stretton's concerns within relevant mainstream discourses, portraying her diverse interests as linked by an overriding concern for those on the margins of society.

Lomax's attempt at recuperation, however, is not wholly successful. While she seeks to claim that Stretton's work is more complex and nuanced than usually recognized, her arguments frequently neglect this kind of nuance. Rather than engaging with the complexities of fictional representations, Lomax often resorts to the citation of proof-texts, divorced from their novelistic contexts. While occasionally this form of argumentation is adequate to the purpose, more often these quotations or allusions only raise additional questions. Is the quoted expression of a character's dissatisfaction with her husband justified in the narrative? Is it an early attitude later abandoned or a mature judgment? Is it narratorially endorsed or condemned—or something in between? A brief allusion might suffice in a discussion of, say, Charles Dickens, where the narrative context is familiar, but here much more is needed.

In addition, Lomax's recuperative efforts involve emphasizing mainstream rather than religious contexts of Stretton's work. But this leads her to ignore relevant and potentially illuminating theological and sectarian material. A minor example: when Lomax discusses the treatment of an "outcast" mother in Stretton's A Thorny Path (1879), the character's name, Hagar, passes without remark...