A Complete Identity: The Youthful Hero in the Work of G. A. Henty and George MacDonald by Rachel E. Johnson (review)

As critical work on children’s literature and Victorian literature and culture becomes more extensive, it is possible to observe the recycling of views on particular writers who thus become stereotyped. This phenomenon is challenged by Rachel E. Johnson with regard to G. A. Henty (1832–1902) and George MacDonald (1824–1905) in a deeply researched study which is carefully and clearly written. It is set against the “social, political and religious conditions of the second half of the nineteenth century” (xv), a framing that extends this work beyond the literary, demonstrating the interaction of writers with the conditions and ideologies of the period. While rightly drawing on her successful PhD thesis, Johnson has commendably avoided the pitfall of reproducing a thesis and instead has rewritten the work to produce a readable and highly informed reassessment of Henty and MacDonald.

Johnson’s hypothesis is that the works of Henty and MacDonald are popularly regarded by critics as opposed to one another; however, her reassessment employs the overarching constructs of the hero and the genres of realism and fantasy to demonstrate that such a clear-cut demarcation is not possible. Henty has been pigeonholed by critics as “The Boy’s Historian,” employing the genre of historical realism, with MacDonald placed in the “opposing” genres of fantasy and fairy tale. By moving beyond the texts that usually receive attention, Johnson has contributed to the study of these two authors. Her choice of Henty’s Out on the Pampas (1871) involves her with a novel that, unlike many of Henty’s works, does not include a description of a major historical battle or one particular historical event, but is instead “a pioneer story based on the adventures of one family” and containing “active female characters” rather than focusing on the singular male hero (6). Johnson’s argument in relation to MacDonald is that he “demonstrate[d] reality” in his longer fairy tales such as The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883), employing “strong female child characters [who] often appear in positions of leadership and equality with the male hero” (8, 9). Johnson’s argument is, therefore, that MacDonald also engages his readers with the realities of the period and with concerns shared by himself and Henty.

Critical examination of the trope of the hero enables Johnson to interrogate such nineteenth-century realities. For instance, discussion of the dominant construct of the male hero, which was essential to the success of imperialist expansionism and allied associations with racism, is illuminated by the careful explanation and consideration of economic and social contexts, including the influences of contemporary religious and scientific movements. Johnson deconstructs and explains such complexities by concentrating “on three concepts that influenced and informed both domestic and foreign policy.” The first of these concepts is race and the parallel between “the urban poor in the domestic context and the colonized people in the context of the empire” (25), which also incorporates the suppressed position of women and children. Her second concept is the correlation “between the exploration of exotic geographical spaces and the uncharted psychological spaces of the subconscious” (25). Third, Johnson considers the Victorian “exploration of spiritualities” and alternatives to Christian orthodoxy (26). Connecting such thinking to the economic background enables the argument to incorporate examinations of poverty and social problems.

The second part of Johnson’s work concentrates on the literary discussion of “Genre, Mode, and Ideology,” using the notion of a continuum of realism, romance, fantasy, and fairy tale in which the boundaries become blurred in order to elucidate her more complex critical positioning of Henty and MacDonald. This approach makes a great deal of sense, for distinct categorization of a text into, say, realism or fantasy is the false luxury of the literary critic. As Johnson demonstrates, Henty’s realist “factual” historical novels necessarily employ devices of romance...