Following close upon the heels of Principles of Education came
The Journal of a Home Life (1867) and its sequel After Life
(1868). The relationship of these volumes to the earlier work
would be obvious to anyone reading the three works in the order
of their publication. Miss Sewell, in addition, has explained
the thematic connections between these works in her
Autobiography "I also undertook a new Tale which, in accordance
with the suggestion of a friend, was intended to show the actual
working of certain ideas I had, shortly before, put forth in a
work bearing the title Principles of Education" (p. 117). The
preface to Home Life, dated at Ashcliff, 1867, also declares the
author's intention to illustrate the principles of education and
to demonstrate the difficulty of carrying out these principles
in ordinary life. Because the form is that of a journal, the
point of view is first person. The narrator, Mrs. Anstruther, is
a widow left: with four young children and two teen-age
stepdaughters. As the story open