Notions of Boyhood and National Identity in G.A. Henty's Historical Adventure Texts for Boys

Abstract

G.A. Henty, (1832-1902) productive English Victorian author, wrote over eighty formulaic historical adventure stories for boys, between 1871 and 1906 (published posthumously).

Henty worked and published in tandem, part and parcel with, the aggressive second expansion of the British Empire in the latter half of the 19th century. With historical hindsight we can clearly see his work through a post-colonial lens and while valid, this dominant critical view is incomplete. This thesis argues that the “Henty formula”; rigorously employed in most all of his books for boys, is a combination of two very powerful elements: that of a ‘universal’ code of manliness rooted in survival and represented by a boy-hero placed in a hero-quest plot structure and secondly, the use of military history embedded in the narrative which inevitably aids the Henty hero in his survival. While Henty’s narratives, when viewed as an entire corpus, and taken in their historical context, function as a powerful collective history of war, bridging boy and nation, the Henty Formula remains an appeal to basic human instinct, which transcends time, culture, place, and gender.

My research focuses on the books he wrote regarding British campaigns in North Africa, the Egypt-Sudan trilogy, including: A Chapter of Adventures, Or, Through the Bombardment of Alexandria, 1891; The Dash for Khartoum, A Tale of the Nile Expedition, 1892; and With Kitchener in the Soudan, A Story of Atbara and Omdurman, 1903. Other stories are also referenced.