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Cautionary Tales for Children

First published: 1907
Pages: 54

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About this book

Published in 1907, this slim book of comic verse pretends to instruct well-off English children in good behaviour, then visits gleefully gruesome punishments on them. Belloc offers eleven rhyming tales and a mock-solemn introduction: Jim, who lets go of his nurse's hand and is eaten by a lion; Matilda, who tells lies and burns to death; Rebecca, who slams doors once too often; and Henry King, who dies from chewing bits of string. Each punishment is absurdly out of proportion to the crime, and that is precisely the joke. The poems parody the earnest moral verse of the Victorians while poking fun at upper-class manners and the whole tradition of the cautionary tale. Bouncing couplets and a straight-faced delivery keep it lively for adults and children alike.

About the author

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was a French-English writer and political activist. Belloc was considered one of the most versatile authors of the 20th century, producing essays on history, politics and economics as well as poetry, travelogues and satire. His Catholicism had a strong effect on his works.