| Street, Brian V. The Savage in Literature:
Representations of ‘Primitive’ Society in English Fiction 1858-1920 (London
and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975).
Street briefly discusses Kingsley’s depiction of degeneration of society, of race, of individuals. The main reason for degeneration was weak morality as exemplified by the Doasyoulikes in The Water-Babies. On the other hand, man might also progress once he adheres to the proper Victorian ethical values. “By following Christian ethics, we will progress ‘up’ the evolutionary scale, but if we are sinful and lazy, like the savages, then we will degenerate” (91). |