Personal and Political Identity and Disguise in The Tiger of Mysore by G.A. Henty (1832-1902)

This paper was given at the Children’s Literature Association India Conference, Mangalore, January 10 – 12, 2008. It was with some trepidation that I proposed a paper on G. A. Henty for a conference in India. Why? Henty’s stereotypical image is of one who promoted exclusively masculine values in adventure stories written for boys often in the historical setting of the British Empire. Like all stereotypical images, this critique represents a facet of a wider actuality, but it is perhaps, prevalent enough to account for my anxiety. However, since Henty is one of the two authors examined in my current research, I offer this investigation of ‘Personal and Political Identity and Disguise in The Tiger of Mysore (1896).