Mrs. Molesworth | 1839-1921 "Girls," according to the children's writer Charlotte Yonge in 1886, "are indiscriminate devourers of fiction... [The] semi-religious novel or novelette is to them moralising put into action...." In the late 19th century, boys had adventure stories, filled with action and intrigue, to instruct them in how to be good, smart, and strong. Girls had Mrs. Molesworth. Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Brontės, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice. Molesworth's stories were formulaic: The heroine of the story, usually a middle-class girl, would learn the value of helping girls less fortunate than herself. The prolific Molesworth was a sentimentalist often criticized for the "cuteness" of her child characters, characterized by lisping and babyish grammar in books such as The Cuckoo Clock (1877) and Robin Redbreast: A Story for Girls (1900). Despite the critics' objections, such lisping would become popular in much of the writing for children that followed.