Educational models and domestic life in two animals novels of the end of the XIX century

Abstract

Against the backdrop of different and partly unconventional existential horizons, the writing of Ida Baccini and Contessa Lara is built around educational models that share the same principles and proposals, and that especially find in the animal world and in its relationship with mankind some useful, helpful and effective pretexts for inspiring uplifting stories for children belonging to the Italian middle-class.

However it should be noted that both novels Una famiglia di topi and Una famiglia di gatti insist on a negative and dangerous image of the outside world, as opposed to the hortus conclusus of the domestic microcosm, or the family nest where every room, every object and every action has a safe and reassuring place in the rhythm of a daily life full of material and moral welfare, inspired by the values of Providence and of the upper-class etiquette.