Wagner does a terrific job of engaging both with the popular culture of childrearing manuals and-sometimes less familiar-Victorian children's and sensation literature as well as the famous work of Charles Dickens, for instance, and her book is in this respect a real treasure-trove of sections on babies and infants drawn from this wide range of sources.
Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, Modern Language Review
In this masterful exploration of literary babies, Wagner exposes the many roles that babies have in Victorian writing ... Thoroughly researched and grounded in historical debates on infant care, this book offers a complex picture of infant characterization ... Wagner investigates the contradictory nature of idealized versus strictly commodified babies in ways that will resonate today. Scholars of the Victorian Age will appreciate this close examination of the youngest literary characters.
C. L. Bandish, CHOICE
The Victorian Baby in Print is an extensive and often illuminating study,...Wagner offers an important contribution to our understanding of childhood, domesticity, and motherhood in Victorian culture.
Galia Benziman, Victorian Studies