Noel Streatfeild

by Nancy Huse

In this comprehensive analysis of a woman hailed by her fellow Britons as a "National Monument," Nancy Huse argues that Streatfeild's work challenges the status of "girls' books," described in most criticism as ephemeral or constituting a category separate from "great books." Huse attributes the appeal of Streatfeild's books to their contemporary themes and traditional values and finds that in exploring the tensions of heredity and environment Streatfeild anticipated many contemporary questions about the role of women, the structure of the family, and the implications of the class system. In particular, Huse notes, Streatfeild (in both her children's and adult novels) used the poverty of women and their work in the domestic sphere to link the public with the private worlds shaping children. Streatfeild's conservative upbringing, rebellious youth, and complex life-long relationship with her family provided material for her novels, according to Huse. Streatfeild developed a conscious perspective on childhood that she used to defend child/adult boundaries while sharpening story forms. At the same time, Huse contends, her multifaceted talent admitted new subjects, character types, themes, and information into the children's book because she assumed competence and intelligent curiosity as the basis of children's contributions to the family and to society. In this vibrant portrait of the life and work of such an innovative children's writer, Huse suggests some meaningful ways to evaluate the family novel, the role of a children's novelist in preserving and constructing a historical record, and the implications of formulaic patterns that derive from female experience.

163 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 1994

Reviews

[Cera]

This is one of the very few critical works available which analyses Streatfeild's work for adults -- which makes it all the more frustrating that Huse gets some things flat-out wrong. Not wrong in the sense that I disagree with her interpretations, but wrong in terms of confusing different characters or failing to notice important plot points. Given that most of these books are extremely difficult to find, with only a few library copies available in the *entire US*, these errors drive me nuts; an interested reader cannot easily go look at the original text to set things straight.

But that being said, Huse does provide some interesting feminist analysis of Streatfeild's work, and I do agree with quite a few of her interpretations, and most of the time when I don't it's a legitimate divergence based on evidence, so I can't completely pan the book. Just don't assume that Huse is always accurate; if you're doing academic work on Streatfeild, make sure you read the original novels rather than relying on her summaries.

[Kathryn Hyde]

I have been attempting to find more crit of Streatfeild's works for adults. I didn't find this particularly illuminating. The adult works are dealt with in relation to the children's literature, so perhaps this is why.