Eric, or, Little by Little

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Eric, or, Little by Little
Cover of the 1891 edition
Author	Frederic W. Farrar
Illustrator	Gordon Browne
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh and London.
Publication date	1858
Media type	Print (Hardback)
ISBN	NA

Eric, or, Little by Little is the title of a book by Frederic W. Farrar, first edition 1858. It was published by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh and London.

The book deals with the descent into moral turpitude of a boy at a boarding school. The author's preface reads "The story of ‘Eric’ was written with but one single object—the vivid inculcation of inward purity and moral purpose, by the history of a boy who, in spite of the inherent nobleness of his disposition, falls into all folly and wickedness, until he has learnt to seek help from above. I am deeply thankful to know—from testimony public and private, anonymous and acknowledged—that this object has, by God’s blessing, been fulfilled." Eric is a son of a British worker and his wife stationed in India. Eric comes to Roslyn School, where he encounters the good and bad aspects of the traditional boys' school. He slowly gets beaten down due to erroneously being punished for wrongdoings, getting bullied and such things as drinking, smoking and cheating. The end is tragic for Eric, as he loses everything. Along with Talbot Baines Reed's The Fifth Form at St. Dominic’s and Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, this book was one of three most popular boys' books in mid-Victorian Britain. The school is a thinly disguised version of Farrar's own school King William's college in the Isle of Man.

In later years, it fell out of favor, in part because of its religious earnestness. For example, in Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co., published late in the 19th century, the protagonist Beetle and his friends frequently made fun of "Eric."

Frontispiece from the 1891 edition, with illustrations by Gordon Browne (1858-1932). Click on image to enlarge.

Title page from 1891 edition of the book. Click on image to enlarge.

[edit] References

Carpenter, Humphrey and Mari Prichard. Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0198602286
Zipes, Jack (ed) et al. The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature: The Traditions in English. W. W. Norton, 2005. ISBN 0393327760
Zipes, Jack (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Volumes 1-4. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0195146565
Watson, Victor, The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521550645
Demmers, Patricia (ed). From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children's Literature to 1850, Oxford University Press, 2003. Table of Contents. 384 pages. ISBN 0195418891.
St. John, Judith. The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, 1566-1910, A Catalogue, Toronto Public Library.