The Water Babies (Wordsworth Children's Classics) - Softcover

Kingsley, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853261483 ISBN 13: 9781853261480

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 1994

Synopsis

Tom, a poor orphan, is employed by the villainous chimney-sweep, Grimes, to climb up inside flues to clear away the soot. While engaged in this dreadful task, he loses his way and emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, the young daughter of the house who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and, hot and bothered, he slips into a cooling stream, falls asleep, and becomes a Water Baby.

In his new life, he meets all sorts of aquatic creatures, including an engaging old lobster, other water babies, and at last reaches St Branden's Isle where he encounters the fierce Mrs Bedonebyeasyoudid and the motherly Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby. After a long and arduous quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere young Tom achieves his heart's desire.

About this title

Review:

"A new and unabridged edition of The Water-Babies is an unlooked-for pleasure. Everyone who has an interest in the exuberant, eclectic, ecological, and erotic aspects of Victorian literature should know this book. When combined with the definitive illustrations by Linley Sambourne and a wealth of explanatory notes, appendices, and other critical tools, this edition becomes indispensable. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Kelly and to Broadview Press for editing and re-issuing this delightful and important work of Victorian children's literature." - Naomi Wood, Kansas State University

"This is a long overdue, thoroughly detailed, and informative edition of Kingsley's classic Victorian children's tale. Though The Water-Babies has had great popular success since first publication, especially in the UK, it has frequently been read in abbreviated versions with many of Kingsley's often lengthy asides on politics, religion, education, and other pressing topics of the day omitted. This Broadview edition, following closely the first book text of 1863, includes all of Kingsley's fascinating diversions. The work is greatly enhanced by Professor Kelly's many scholarly appendices and numerous instructive annotations on the text. The result is an excellent edition that renders this intriguing classic much more amenable to the modern reader." - Brendan A. Rapple, Boston College

From the Back Cover:

The story follows Tom in his land-life as a climbing boy for a chimney-sweep and in his after-life as a water-baby, where he gains redemption from selfishness as well as from drudgery. On to this fantasy Kingsley grafts a series of digressions and comic asides, through which he comments on a range of contemporary issues. Kingsley ostensibly wrote The Water-Babies for his infant son, but its erratic flights of fancy are liable to take it beyond the immediate comprehension of adults and children alike. Often seen as an attack on the exploitation of child labour, it is rather a heterogeneous commentary on Kingsley's life and times. He writes with vibrant and humorous symbolism, fierce satire, and uninhibited imagination. This is the first edition to explore fully Kingsley's text, its variants, and its iconography, and to annotate the many references which enrich the story.|

Among the most popular children's books of the Victorian period, The Water-Babies continues to delight readers of all ages. It tells the story of a young boy named Tom, who escapes his harsh life as a chimney sweep by being transformed into a "water-baby." His adventures underwater introduce him to strange animals, gentle fairies, and exotic seascapes, and Kingsley frequently digresses from the mythical narrative with his commentary on political and scientific topics. Many of Linley Sambourne's remarkable illustrations from the 1886 edition are included in the text of the novel.

This Broadview edition reproduces the first edition of The Water-Babies, published in 1863. The appendices include a broad selection of other 19th-century children's literature and excerpts from Kingsley's essays on evolution, hygiene, and education.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1853261483
• ISBN 13: 9781853261480
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224