Charles Dickens and the Child Narrator: Literary and Sociolinguistic Reflections on A Holiday Romance (1868)

The works of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) are remarkable for his meticulous attention to the polyphony of surrounding society. This literary tendency is evident in his Condition-of-England novels, as well as in Dickens's works aimed at a young readership; in the stories contained in A Holiday Romance (1868), the Victorian writer offers some enlightening reflections on the idea of childhood in Victorian culture. This paper offers an analysis of the innovative choices that characterize this Dickensian novella, especially dwelling upon its literary and sociolinguistic features. In A Holiday Romance, Dickens depicts four child narrators who express themselves using a language typically suited to their young age: baby talk. By using these young narrators, Dickens testifies to the increasing importance of children's voices in the Victorian age—hence, to a socio-cultural legitimation of childhood. Inasmuch as this literary and sociolinguistic innovation is limited by the adult author's perspective on the issues discussed in the novella, the representation of children in A Holiday Romance is stained by the romantic idea of the "innocent child." In addition to this, the adult voice implicitly invites young readers to follow the example of naïve and submissive childhood provided in the novella. Despite the criticisms against it, A Holiday Romance is an innovative text, insomuch as it offers a plausible representation of children during the Victorian age, even according to its author; while writing to his American publisher, Dickens stated, "the writing seemed to me so like children's, that dull folks…might perhaps rate it accordingly" (Dickens, Letters of Charles Dickens 402–403).