The barbarous babes : Being the memoirs of Molly by Edith Ayrton Zangwill
"The barbarous babes: Being the memoirs of Molly" by Edith Ayrton Zangwill is a children’s novel written in the early 20th century. Told in a lively first-person voice, it follows Molly and her siblings—Humphrey, Violet, and Teddy—through a string of misadventures born of fierce imaginations, pranks, and earnest but misguided attempts at virtue. Family life with their governess, visiting relatives, and an often-absent mother frames comic scrapes that turn into gentle moral
lessons. The opening of this novel introduces a series of vivid episodes: Molly and Humphrey’s “torturing games” spiral into a mock martyrdom that nearly ends in disaster; jealousy of a visiting cousin’s curls leads Molly to cut them off in a Samson-and-Delilah prank; shy Violet, misreading a remark, bravely pays a formal call alone and causes social consternation; their mother must leave for her health, and Teddy tries to stow away before later being whipped for sweeping a chimney in play; Molly’s zeal to “missionary” her siblings culminates in an insulting bathroom placard that offends a visiting German musician until Humphrey mends matters; and, at last, the children’s chaotic home theatricals are rescued by their mother’s unexpected return, which steadies the household and brings the first performances off happily. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Zangwill, Edith Ayrton, 1874-1945 |
|---|---|
| Title | The barbarous babes : Being the memoirs of Molly |
| Original Publication | London: R. Brimley Johnson, 1904. |
| Credits | Susan E., Vicki Parnell, David E. Brown, Sue Clark, Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Ed Leckert, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres |
| Subject | Siblings -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | England -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | Children -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | Families -- Juvenile fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77065 |
| Release Date | Oct 16, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 404 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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