Reading Childhood: Collections, Texts, and Visions of Play in the British Country House c.1780-1914

Through a research project grounded in practical investigation into the understudied book collections housed in National Trust properties, I am exploring play and playfulness in reading behaviour during the development of reader identity from childhood to adulthood. The project will interrogate the relationships between play and seriousness, leisure and professionalised habits, and children and adults in nineteenth-century history of reading. In consideration of the frequent categorisation in heritage institutions of children's books alongside toys, a survey of book titles and evidenced reading activity in these collections will contribute to thinking about the boundary (or age) at which books are no longer considered toys; when reading is no longer considered a form of play. I look to define 'playful' reading behaviour, to challenge the derogatory rather than celebratory perception of 'childish' behaviour and, ultimately, to contribute to the history of reading through connecting literary studies with the discipline of Library and Information Science.
Whilst examining the immense pleasures and riches of play in childhood reading, it occurs to me that there is a simultaneous effect of this greater distinction between leisure and work on adults' reading habits and engagement; if a child is not an adult, play is not work, and childhood is so distinct from adulthood, is it possible to achieve playful reading in later life? This trajectory and the process of aging as a reader will be of great interest in conversations of class, wealth and privilege while researching various National Trust collections, asking how the freedom to play will look for those of comfortable means while also considering the economic pressure around success and inheritance in such families to explore what children's reading looks like that isn't necessarily playful, and conversely how the reading behaviour of the labouring classes in country estate environments compares.
Situating the books in their library spaces in the country houses, beyond the literary and material study of the individual items the library will also be considered as a form of adult playroom. Offering a perspective of the library as an adult playroom where other hobbies and pursuits of leisure occur - socialising, sewing, games, smoking - allows for consideration of the adult's nostalgia and craving for joy in the library. For the children of a country house witnessing such adulthood, what influence does this have on their thinking about the place of reading in their lives?
The work will first take the shape of hands-on bibliographical research into the children's books within the collection, seeking evidence of engagement through marginalia, markings and wear-and-tear signifying play. Playing with the Book: Victorian Movable Picture Books and the Child Reader by Hannah Field (2019) will serve as a central aid in the historical aspect of this research, with the idea that nineteenth-century children's literature brought children's awareness to the materiality of books - 'they embody reading' - leading to further questions of what this means for a child's thinking about reading, and the development of their identity as a reader. Comparative analyses on the basis of the content of certain books in the collection itself will also allow me to think about the representation of libraries and childhood reading alongside the historical evidence found in the property, and to consider adult perspectives on children's reading. By centring this project on childhood and play, I endeavour to uncover the seriousness of their impact on the life of a reader.