Evil is in the Eye of the Beholder: Threatening Children in Two Edwardian Speculative Satires

Two neglected Edwardian speculative satires, H.G. Wells'sThe Food of the Gods(1904) and J.D. Beresford'sThe Hampdenshire Wonder(1911), present a darker construction of children than is typically associated with Edwardian Golden Age children's literature. In both of these novels for adults, children are writ large, literally inThe Food of the Godswhen they grow to forty feet, and through mental capacity inThe Hampdenshire Wonder, which depicts responses to a child genius. The novels have been misunderstood since not enough attention has been paid to the sophisticated narration though which the children are portrayed. The children challenge conventions and prompt a moral relativism as perceptions of them shift, until they are demonized by most in society. But evil is in the eyes of the beholders, since these works primarily satirize the threatened adults. These novels influenced subsequent sf explorations of children and remain relevant because they probe the perennial anxiety about children surpassing adults.