[Gutenberg 29380] • The Adventures of Herr Baby

Mary Louisa Molesworth (1839-1921) was a Scottish writer. Her first novels, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), appeared under the pseudonym of "Ennis Graham. " She typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Bront�s, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice. She is best known as a writer of books for the young, such as Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), The Tapestry Room#58; A Child's Romance (1879), and A Christmas Child (1880). She has been called "the Jane Austen of the nursery, " while The Carved Lions (1895) is probably her masterpiece. Her other works include Rosy (1882), Us#58; An Old Fashioned Story (1885), and The Rectory Children (1889).