Fragile hope... a small tortoiseshell butterfly near Hope in the county of Shropshire. For Dickens, fairytales were the core of a child’s education, delicately crafted over the centuries to mould impressionable minds and hearts in virtues common to us all; they were to be treated as history, and never appropriated for some modish propaganda campaign.
Introduction
Charles Dickens’s friend, the cartoonist George Cruikshank, rewrote various fairytales as propaganda for teetotalism. Dickens, however, soon appreciated the dangers in allowing social activists to indoctrinate children like this.
IT would be hard to estimate the amount of gentleness and mercy that has made its way among us through these slight channels. Forbearance, courtesy, consideration for poor and aged, kind treatment of animals, love of nature, abhorrence of tyranny and brute force - many such good things have been first nourished in the child's heart by this powerful aid.
In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected. Every one who has considered the subject knows full well that a nation without fancy, without some romance, never did, never can, never will, hold a great place under the sun. To preserve them in their usefulness, they must be as much preserved in their simplicity, and purity, and innocent extravagance, as if they were actual fact. Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him.
By Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
After his friend George Cruikshank took it upon himself to rewrite well-loved fairytales to promote Victorian values, Dickens responded with an essay, warning that such indoctrination would quickly get out of hand if not checked. He believed that myths and legends need to be treated with the same respect as history itself. (52 / 60 words)
After his friend George Cruikshank took it upon himself to rewrite well-loved fairytales to promote Victorian values, Dickens responded with an essay, warning that such indoctrination would quickly get out of hand if not checked. He believed that myths and legends need to be treated with the same respect as history itself.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, must, or, ought, since, unless, whereas.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Hard. Power. Their.
2 Grave. Have. Purity.
3 First. Gentle. Innocent.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1.
Can.
Could.
2.
Hardly.
Hardy.
3.
Kind.
Sort.
4.
Must.
Ought.
5.
Ones.
One’s.
6.
Respectfully.
Respectively.
7.
Their.
They’re.
8.
Were.
We’re.
9.
Will.
Would.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
ntr (8+2)
enter. entire. entree. inter. nature. neater. neuter. untrue.
intro. nitre.
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