The Froebellious Child in Catherine Sinclair's Holiday House

While some critics celebrate Catherine Sinclair's Holiday House (1839) for its innovative playfulness, others have drawn attention to its underlying didacticism, especially its formulaic, death-bed ending. Rudd argues that the book has a more overarching unity and addresses different concepts of child rearing. In contrast to the over-zealous corporal punishment and utilitarian fact cramming, the ideas of educationalists, such as Friedrich Froebel, are promoted. In this conception, children are given a protected space in which to grow, where the excesses of the carnivalesque can be indulged, which are, ultimately, a reflection of a benevolent Christianity.