Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Arthur Ransome’s book series “Swallows and Amazons”, named after the eponymous first volume, is among the first writing for children to present adventure plots which are believable, with the stories delivered by a narrator who treats his readers as peers. In this they have transformed the genre of the children’s novel. They have been acclaimed as quintessentially English and as such have achieved cross-over into adult readership as an idyll of a now lost rural England in the inter-war years. On the fly-leaf of the first edition of

Swallows and Amazons

, Ransome describes it as “a book about children for children and their parents, guardians, cousins and aunts”. They were intended as much for adults as for children. Since the first volume was published in 1930 (UK) and 1931…

5355 words

Citation: Davis, Graeme. "Swallows and Amazons". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 February 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28102, accessed 19 March 2024.]

28102 Swallows and Amazons 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.