[Ads-l] Wilbur the pig

[Robin Hamilton]

I wonder ... They both give the pig the same name, certainly, but White's Wilbur
has a pleasanter character, and the whole story is less edged than the anonymous
19thC Conceited Pig.  Cultural Diffusion or Sheer Coincidence?  I'd go for the
latter ...

Robin

> On 18 September 2016 at 19:25 Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
>     Any relation to E. B. White's Wilbur of Charlotte's Web?
> 
> 
>     Joel
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     ---------------------------------------------
>     From: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
>     To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>     Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2016 10:31 AM
>     Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Where are the PC police?
> 
>     ...
> 
> 
>     Only two things of substance I'd want to add.  One is that, as part of the
>     British line of development, there's a lovely short novel called _The
> Conceited
>     Pig_ published anonymously (circa 1848).  This can be found (among other
> places)
>     here (with further details below my sig.):
> 
> 
> 
>        http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=78655893&mode=transcription
> http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=78655893&mode=transcription
> 
>    http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=78655893&mode=transcription
> http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=78655893&mode=transcription
> 
>     This is well worth reading (it's actually to my mind rather funny) and, as
> is
>     characteristic of the British line of development, much less moralistic
> than
>     Chandler.
> 
>     ...
> 
> 
>     Robin.
> 
>     ________________
> 
>               On a Conceited Pig called Wilbur:
> 
> 
>     <<  Chambers’ 1842 version was reprinted as part of his collected works in
> 1847,
>     and again in 1870. As early as the late 1840s, less than six years after
> its
>     first appearance, the narrative was adapted and expanded as _The Conceited
> Pig_ (pre-1848?), which introduced a pig named Wilbur [emphasis added]. The
> anonymous author continued with _Miss Peck’s Adventures_ (London, 1848),
> featuring a sour and spinsterish hen named Miss Peck.
> 
>     ...
> 
> 
>     NOTE:  _The Conceited Pig_ (London, 1852) – Probably pre-1848. While this
> is
>     the earliest text I’ve been able to see, there are several books listed by
>     Worldcat as published in 1848, including an edition of _Miss Peck’s
> Adventures_,
>     which read, “by the author of The Conceited Pig.”]
> 
>     In an advert in Rev. W.B.Flower, _Try Again_ (1848), _Miss Peck’s
> Adventures_ is described as in preparation, and about to be issued, so _The
> Conceited Pig_ was almost certainly printed before 1848.
> 
>     The novelist Charlotte E. Yonge commented approvingly on this tale,
> comparing it
>     favourably to Halliwell’s version and suggested that it was developed from
> the
>     Scottish version provided by Chambers.  >>
> 
> 
> 



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