Overview

The Water-Babies (1863) is one of the strangest and most powerful children's books ever published. Written by an Anglican clergyman with an insatiable love of science, the story combines an uplifting moral about redemption with a crash course in evolutionary theory, and has an imaginative exuberance equalled only by Lewis Carroll. Young Tom is a chimney-sweeper's boy who one day falls into a river and drowns, only to be transformed into a water-baby. Through his encounters with friendly fish, curious lobsters, and characters such as Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, he sloughs off his selfish nature and earns his just reward. Tom's comic adventures are constantly interrupted by Kingsley's sideswipes at contemporary issues such as child labour and the British education system, and they offer a rich satiric take on the great scientific debates of the day. The story's linguistic and narrative oddities make it an unclassifiable fantasy that is both a naturalist's handbook and an aquatic Pilgrim's Progress, and its vibrant symbolism also reveals some of Kingsley's more private obsessions regarding cleanliness and sanitation reform.This new edition reprints the original complete text and illustrations, and includes a lively introduction and notes that reveal the full richness of this bizarre but compelling fairy tale.

Full Product Details

Author:   Charles Kingsley ,  Brian Alderson ,  Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Fellow and Tutor in English, Magdalen College, Oxford)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.10cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 20.20cm
Weight:   0.390kg
ISBN:  

9780199645602

ISBN 10:   0199645604
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   14 March 2013
Recommended Age:   From 8 to 12 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  Children/juvenile ,  General ,  Children / Juvenile
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Introduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Charles Kingsley THE WATER-BABIES Appendix I: Textual Variants Appendix II: 'The Wonders of the Shore' Explanatory Notes

Reviews

With an introduction that attends to all the eccentricities of book and author, this new edition reveals Kingsley as a progressive thinker who embraced evolutionary theory and championed environmental causes even as he perpetuated stereotypes and trumpeted stale moral pieties. * Maria Tatar, New York Times *

With an introduction that attends to all the eccentricities of book and author, this new edition reveals Kingsley as a progressive thinker who embraced evolutionary theory and championed environmental causes even as he perpetuated stereotypes and trumpeted stale moral pieties. Maria Tatar, New York Times

Author Information

Brian Alderson has long been involved in the study of children's literature as editor, translator, lecturer, and exhibitions organizer. He takes a particular interest in bibliographic aspects, especially those related to the history of British and American publishing and illustration. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is the author of Becoming Dickens (Harvard UP, 2011), winner of the 2011 Duff Cooper Prize, and he has edited editions of Dickens's Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books and Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor for Oxford World's Classics. He writes regularly for publications including the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, TLS, and New Statesman.

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