Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children [Paperback]

Michael Newton (Author)

Book Description

Wild or feral children have fascinated us down the centuries, and continue to do so today. In a haunting and hugely readable study, Michael Newton deftly investigates a number of infamous cases. He looks at Peter the Wild Boy, who gripped the attention of Swift and Defoe, and at Victor of Aveyron who roamed the forests of revolutionary France. He tells the story of a savage girl lost on the streets of Paris; of two children brought up by wolves in the jungles of India; of a boy brought up among monkeys in Uganda; and in Moscow, of a child found living with a pack of wild dogs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a child, literature professor Michael Newton (University College, London) was captivated by Tarzan movies and Kipling's The Jungle Book. It's only fitting, then, that his first book, Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children, would investigate the history of children raised by (among others) wolves, monkeys and wild dogs. If these children help us understand "our continuing relationship with the savage image of ourselves" they also serve as a useful mirror of society's ills. As Newton argues, the medical treatments, therapeutic interventions, and general media hoopla following the discoveries of these children sharply reveal the intellectual and political fixations of their particular historical milieu from Victor, the "Wild Child of Aveyron," in 1800, onward. As interesting as such stories are in themselves, however, Newton's real strength lies in his ability to recognize how these children, seemingly helpless yet astonishingly self-contained, inevitably awaken our rescue fantasies and parental longings. Newton is a consummate storyteller, and this richly detailed study will work just as well outside of academe as within it.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

We are fascinated and appalled by stories of abandoned and lost children who are raised by animals in the wilderness or who fend for themselves like animals in the wilds of our cities or, worse, children who are subjected to prolonged and brutal solitary confinement. Such children have no human language or sense of connection to other human beings and are, therefore, terribly alone. Newton finds that the troubling lives of these feral outsiders challenge our most closely held notions about human nature and society. As he recounts the astonishing histories of such feral children as Peter the Wild Boy, who so intrigued Jonathan Swift; the savage girl of Champagne, reclaimed in 1731 and named Memmie Le Blanc; the famous Kaspar Hauser; and Genie, a savagely abused captive liberated in L.A. in 1970, Newton also insightfully portrays those who studied and worked with them, carefully deciphering their beliefs and motives. Ultimately, Newton concludes his unique and deeply compassionate study with a discerning meditation on the crucial questions "wild" children raise about nature, nurture, and civilization. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Picador (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312423357
• ISBN-13: 978-0312423353
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humanity from the Wild Side, February 28, 2003

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Hardcover)

There are many myths about abandoned children who become heroes, like Moses and Oedipus. These had the good fortune to be found by humans and raised by humans. But there are other myths, some as modern as Tarzan, about abandoned children who are taken up by animals. Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves, and Semiramis, who founded Babylon, was raised by birds. Such stories seem to be of intense interest to humans, and when a real "wild child" is produced, it can cause curiosity, sympathy, and sensation. The stories of six such wild children are recounted in _Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children_ (Thomas Dunne Books) by Michael Newton. The individual stories, full of contradiction and wonder, are all intriguing, and the responses to the children and their fate have something to tell us not so much about feral children, but about ourselves. These poor children lacked human contact when they should have been learning how to talk, eat, and behave; the result of such deprivation brings up profound questions about what language means, and what it is to be human.

Peter, the "Wild Boy" came naked out of the forests of Hanover, and became an attraction at the court of George I. He lived on for sixty years, described in 1751 as "more of the Ouran Outang species than of the human." He could say only three words, "Peter" and "King George." Memmie le Blanc was lured out of a tree in France in Champagne in 1731 when she was about ten; she seems to have been a Native American dropped for some reason by the slave trade. She could run and swim well, used a club to kill prey, and lived on roots and raw meat. She eventually learned some French, and made artificial flowers for her living. Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron was captured in the woods and lost twice over the years before being finally taken in 1800. His development is among the best documented, as a young doctor set out to make the wild boy social. Victor learned to say the French word for milk. Kamala was about eight years old, suckled by wolves in the Indian jungle, until she was captured in 1920. She lived nine further years, and learned a few words. The famous Kaspar Hauser had a strange tale of being kept prisoner in a cellar for sixteen years. He is the one feral child here that might be fraudulent. The most modern example, the sad Genie who was tied to a chair in Los Angeles until she was about thirteen, acquired lots of words but no grammar. What was going on in the minds of these children?

Probably no one knows with any confidence, but that does not stop curiosity or speculation. One of Genie's caretakers found her "unsocialized, primitive, hardly human." By the time we get to her case, we can see that the same thing was said of all these wild children, and that their suffering struck cords in those around them. But like Victor, Hauser, and Le Blanc, Genie was rescued, received intense caring attention, became a celebrity, and then was consigned to oblivion. The pattern happened over and over to the wild children who lived long enough, and seems to indicate that bringing such creatures happily into human society is almost impossible. Those who thought about these children, and they thought long and hard, were eager to examine humanity uncorrupted, as completely blank slates, but no one came close enough to understanding the children to make them social. We fantasize that we can reclaim such lost humans, or that they have the intellectual power to reclaim themselves; look at Mowgli or Tarzan. It must not be forgotten that these poor children survived under appalling conditions, and that can inspire some admiration. But humans need each other, and Newton's serious and earnest book is best at showing this simple truth in a new way.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Exactly What I Expected, March 13, 2007

By 

Stephen R. Devoy (Kenai, Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Paperback)

Newton writes well. I found his book worthy of reading, but if you are expecting a deep study in the psychology of essential human nature absent the influence of culture you will be disappointed. The book focuses primarily on the impressions of those who have encountered feral human beings within a civilized setting. It is full of folk-psychological analyses of the phenomenon but nearly devoid of any in-depth scientific analysis. Perhaps what I was expecting is not available due to the ethical restrictions on studies of human beings. Nevertheless, the book seems more an exercise of philology than psychology or philosophy.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missing the Broad Side of a Barn, December 12, 2007

By 

Erik C. Tillmans Esq (LOS ANGELES, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Paperback)

While the subject is as interesting as I could possibly imagine, the book itself really disappointed me. Lots of meandering and boring suppositions with occasional facts and interesting tidbits. I was looking for a book that tried to explain wild children, or at the very least would explain and examine how and why they are so different.

This read like someone who casually researched several cases and then wrote up an excellent magazine article.

Then they added 300 pages of filler off the top of their head, and the book was published.