Figure 1.--.

There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references are those in contemprary works. There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature. Of special interest to HBC is the large number of boy characters in British literature. Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating references or even discussions of clothing.

Fashion Information

There is a great deal of fashion information in literature. As it is literature and not actual history, the comments on clothing have to be taken with caution. Authors vary as to how accurately they write about fashion and other historical cultural matters used to flesh out their plots and characters. Of course the most reliable fashion references are those in contemprary works.

Types of Literature

There are various types of literature of interest to HBC. We note useful information in both novels and children literature.

Novels

There is a great deal of interesting fashion information in German novels. There are useful refrence to fashion in novels for the simple reason that fashion is important to people. Novels are all about describing the human condition. Thus novelists have to address what is important to people. Of course a major part of any novel is developing the character of the key people in the novel. Of course many people express their character in the clothes they choose. In other instances clothes are determined by the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Biographies

There is also a great deal of fashion information in biographies and autobiographies. This information tends to be highly reliable. We have archieved this infomation in the biography section of HBC. We do not yet, however, have a separate French biograohy section.

Children's literature

We have developed a great deal of information on English children's literature. We have much less on German children's literature at this time. We are not sure if there is just less children's literature written in German or that we simply lack information on it. Hopefully our German readers will provide more information here.

Boy Characters

I have limited information on boys in German literature. This may well be because of my inability to speak German. We know of several books with boy characters. I do not know, however, of any important German boy literarty character. Some of our German visitors have provided some details to HBC. It appears while there have been books written about German boys, both adult books and children's books. As far as we can determine, however, nome of these characters have arisen to the cultural status that American and British boyhood characters like Oliver Twist or Tom Sawyer acieved. Perhaps our German readers can take issue with this or confirm it. HBC is not sure why there is such a difference in English and German literature. A German source indicated that he was impressed with Struwelpeter as a boy. He also read Wilhelm Busch's Max and Mortiz stories as a boy.

Illustrators

Of course one helpful aspect of many books are the often fascinating illustrations. A very important part of any children' books are the illustrations. Many of us adults can remember missing the declining use of illustrations in books as we grew up. While our knowledge of German children's literature is still limited, we have noted several important German illustarors that have left us with wondeful images of German children and the clothes that that they have worn over time. We have noted one very impressive and prolific German illustrator--C.W. Allers. He was active at the turn of the century. Unfortunately we have little information about him at this time. His illustrations cover a wide range of topics, but we note that the drew clothing and hair styles in meticulous detail. Another famous German illustrator was the inventor of the comic strip, Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), the creator of Max and Moritz, a story every German-speaking person knows.

Created: September 5, 2003
Last updated: September 5, 2003