Recently I came across a reference to a novel by Mrs Humphry
Ward. Robert Elsmere was a highly
successful novel about a clergyman, who begins to doubt his Anglican faith after
reading the German rationalists, and who develops a view of Christianity based
on social commitment. Many thought it to have far greater influence on religion
than Darwin’s Origin of the Species.
I thought about other books which have “changed the world”.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
fuelled the antislavery movement; Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath led to legislation favouring farm workers and Anne
Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl is a
reminder of racial persecution.
I wonder how many Australian children’s books could be
included in this list – My Place by
Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins?
Or is it no longer possible for a single book to influence large numbers
of people? What do you think?
Richard Pickup
P.S. Mrs Humphry Ward was born in Tasmania in 1851. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold
(headmaster of Rugby School) and was the niece of the poet Matthew Arnold.
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