Savage Girls and Wild Boys by Michael Newton is a poignant but beautifully written account of the extraordinary children brought up in the wilderness or locked up for long years in solitary confinement.
Michael Newton grew up in Brighton, wanting from the age of six to be a writer.On graduating, he started a PhD on ghost stories at University College, London, but really spent his time writing 'bad' plays and novels. When his grant ran out, he went to Harvard for a year as a Visiting Research Fellow.He discovered the subject of his first book, Savage Girls and Wild Boys, by accident and he felt that the stories and the children themselves resonated in him.He has worked in various jobs, including tour guide, clerk, theatre reviewer, and above all, freelance lecturer - at one point, teaching in five institutions at once. In the last four years, he has taught part-time at University College, London, Central St Martin's College of Art and Princeton University in London. He has also written for the Times Literary Supplement.
'The stories Newton has to tell are spellbinding.' Mail on Sunday 'A collection of six, extraordinary individual histories, beautifully navigated.' Evening Standard
'The stories Newton has to tell are spellbinding.' Mail on Sunday 'A collection of six, extraordinary individual histories, beautifully navigated.' Evening Standard
As a child, literature professor Michael Newton (University College, London) was captivated by Tarzan movies and Kipling's The Jungle Book. It's only fitting, then, that his first book, Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children, would investigate the history of children raised by (among others) wolves, monkeys and wild dogs. If these children help us understand "our continuing relationship with the savage image of ourselves" they also serve as a useful mirror of society's ills. As Newton argues, the medical treatments, therapeutic interventions, and general media hoopla following the discoveries of these children sharply reveal the intellectual and political fixations of their particular historical milieu from Victor, the "Wild Child of Aveyron," in 1800, onward. As interesting as such stories are in themselves, however, Newton's real strength lies in his ability to recognize how these children, seemingly helpless yet astonishingly self-contained, inevitably awaken our rescue fantasies and parental longings. Newton is a consummate storyteller, and this richly detailed study will work just as well outside of academe as within it. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
