The life and perambulations of a Mouse

by Dorothy Kilner, G.P. Ballin (Editor)

Dorothy Kilner published anonymously at first and then under the successive pseudonyms of M. P. and Mary Pelham, in line with general practice for female authors in that period. "M. P." may have referred to her home town of Maryland Point. Both she and her sister-in-law were published by the London firm of John Marshall. Dorothy's most famous book was The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse (1784). This has been praised by a present-day critic as a book that "draws least attention to gaps and contradictions.... The story is episodic, as we follow the mouse Nimble through various households and overhear a variety of conversations.... This episodic, even picaresque, form effectively naturalizes—defuses—potential inconsistency." Other titles included Anecdotes of a Boarding School, or an antidote to the vices of those Establishments (1790) and Little Stories for Little Folks (c. 1785). Kilner wrote clearly and well, but in an age when the moral element in children's literature was still dominant. So her book The Village School (1795) is subtitled A Collection of Entertaining Histories for the Instruction and Amusement of All Good Children, and the stories feature a Mrs. Bell (the schoolteacher) and a Mr. Right (the parson). The book "From this fatal accident it is to be hoped, that every body will learn to be extremely cautious not to leave candles burning near linen, nor, indeed, any where, without constantly watching, that they may not do mischief." Nonetheless, her discernment of children's character and amusements shines through. Copies of the books of Dorothy and Mary Ann were found long after their deaths in a trunk in their Maryland Point home. Several titles continued to be reprinted for many years. The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse, for instance, reappeared in 1870 in a collection edited by Charlotte M. Yonge, entitled A Storehouse of Stories

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1790

Reviews

[Lucas]

Life and Perambulations of a Mouse is a work I find difficult to review. For one, it is rather old and uses language that is almost foreign to a modern day reader, and for another I find the intentions of the work very clear, yet at the same time it doesn't seem to serve any clear purpose.
Life and Perambulations of a Mouse sets out to teach children the importance of good virtues such as civility and humbleness and does this very clearly, so that even a child can follow. The book is almost wholly composed of stories where good things happening to well-behaved people and cautionary tales of the consequences of treating others poorly, which is also emphasized in the closing line of the book: "And now I cannot take leave of all my little readers, without once more begging them, for their own sakes, to endeavour to follow all the good advice the mouse has been giving them; and likewise warning them to shun all those vices and follies, the practice of which renders children so contemptible and wicked."
The problem with Life and Perambulations of a mouse is that its monotonous stories that only tell more of the same get so surprisingly repetitive incredibly quickly, despite only being 63 pages long, that only the simplest, youngest and most gullible of children would take heed of it. The mouse mentioned in the title is only a tool the author used to appeal to children and thinly veil the rantings of behaviour into a 'fun package' for children, and adds nothing of merit to the story and is completely superfluous. To make matters worse Life and Perambulations of a Mouse has quite complex language and structure which synergizes poorly with the aforementioned simpleness of the stories considering they are aimed at children.
Despite having the best of intentions Life and Perambulations of a Mouse has aged poorly and fails to serve any purpose with its ambivalent nature, making reading it not only a fruitless pursuit but one without enjoyment as well.

[Lizixer]

This 18thC long short story, written by a woman, has very strong moralistic messages but also fantastical overtones since it involves the,at times, gory adventures of a talking mouse.

As this is a very early tale, 1780s, it is very clearly a vehicle to deliver strong moral messages to children (some of which one can’t disagree with as they are things like anti-animal cruelty and proto-feminist statements while others are definitely of their time). The mouse recounts stories within the story that he has overheard on his journey that illustrate the virtues that the writer wishes to champion. Some of the remedies for the poor behaviour of bad people are also “of their time” and involve a lot of physical violence.

What makes this a curiosity of interest is the fantasy element which is an early example of an adventure plot for talking animals that is full of peril and emotional moments between the homilies. This idea of a talking animal offering a different perspective on the world is a theme that will be emulated by later writers (indeed I read one by Elly Griffiths earlier who tells a tale from the perspective of a cat) who may also deliver moral messages for humans through them, but in a more subtle manner and with considerably less emphasis on physical chastisement!

Probably only of interest to a few readers, especially as the moral tales do go on a bit compared to the much livelier mouse tale. Nevertheless, these moral messages about goodness, virtuous behaviour, fair play and kindness, delivered in so clunky a fashion here, will continually be explored in Georgian and Victorian literature.

[Alex]

(very loosely filed under Victorians although I'm aware this is 18th century)

Not bad, quite inventive, weirdly graphic re: mouse death for a children's story. Moralizing although that's to be expected given when it was published. It was cute and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, so there's that.

[ForestGardenGal]

Moral stories for children

Moral stories for children, as told through the amusing anecdotes of a wandering mouse- who is a bit of a gossip! 😉