Cover
Routledge's Every Boy's Annual
1865
Embossed and gold-stamped paper
8 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches
[See commentary below]
Other Material from this periodical
Photograph by Siobhan Lam
Text by George P. Landow
Comparing the covers of this volume with one from twenty years later, one sees an increasingly nationalistic ideal of boyhood and schoolboy reading. This 1865 volume concentrates entirely on outdoor activities and interests, featuring (from left to right clockwise) embossed images of a rooster, sailboat, dog (?), cricket bats, fish, flower, and more cricket bats all surrounding a balloon. I assume the rooster stands for farming and rural life, and the flower symbolizes either nature or gardening. The 1865 title-page also emphasizes sport and outdoor activity as the essential leisure occupations for boys.
The 1885 cover, in contrast, depicts only a sailing ship in the lower left corner while the square panel occupying more than half the cover contains a crusader knight clearly dominating a saracen, whose horse has been struck to its knees by the force of the knight's mace upon the saracen's shield. This image seems to embody the eurocentric and imperialist tone of the time, which even occurs in Music Hall songs, for here the Christian West is seen defeating the Muslim Middle East — a victory prefiguring European imperialism in general and Britain's role in the Middle east in particular. One has to point out, however, that the volume's title-page emphasizes boys reading rather than engaging in sport or heroic action. (One might also point out that, at least according to some authorties on medieval warfare, the mace was not considered a proper knightly weapon — a knight should use a sword — but clergyman warriors in the Crusades were permitted to use them.)
Last modified 20 August 2007