Charles Kingsley

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.

La adaptación del relato de Charles Kingsley, las excelentes fotografías de Zena Holloway y las delicadas ilustraciones de Heidi Taylor dan vida a este enigmático y original cuento onírico. Sin perder la mezcla de humor, fantasia y deliciosa inocencia, esta nueva version de Los niños del agua muestra que la fuerte carga moral del original sigue siendo tan relevante hoy en dia como lo fue hace ciento cincuenta años. Acompaña a Tom en sus aventuras subacuaticas y emprenderas un viaje magico, en el que participan personajes imaginarios inolvidables como la señora Dondelasdanlastomas, la hermosa libelula, la aterradora nutria y la encantadora Ellie. Al finalizar el periplo sabras si, de verdad, existen los niños del agua.

After being chased from the home of an upper-class young girl called Ellie, chimney-sweep Tom falls asleep and tumbles into a river. There he is transformed into a 'water-baby' and his adventures truly begin. Beneath the surface, he enters a magical world full of strange and wonderful creatures, where he must prove his moral worth in order to earn what he truly desires. One of the most unusual children's books ever written, The Water-Babies, subtitled 'A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby', was originally intended as a satire in support of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and explores many of the issues at the forefront of biologists' minds at the time. First published as a complete novel in 1863, Charles Kingsley's classic tale also explores ideas about religion, the Victorian education system and the working conditions of children and the poor. With glorious black and white illustrations by W. Heath Robinson and an introduction by author and journalist Christina Hardyment. Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Tom, a mistreated young chimney sweep finds himself transported into a fantastic underwater world where he becomes a water baby. A vivid and exciting story that created serious issues about childrens working hours in Victorian Britain.

Once upon a time there were two princes who were twins. Their names were Acrisius and Prtus, and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas. They had fruitful meadows and vineyards, sheep and oxen, great herds of horses feeding down in Lerna Fen, and all that men could need to make them blest: and yet they were wretched, because they were jealous of each other. From the moment they were born they began to quarrel; and when they grew up each tried to take away the others share of the kingdom, and keep all for himself. So first Acrisius drove out Prtus; and he went across the seas, and brought home a foreign princess for his wife, and foreign warriors to help him, who were called Cyclopes; and drove out Acrisius in his turn; and then they fought a long while up and down the land, till the quarrel was settled, and Acrisius took Argos and one half the land, and Prtus took Tiryns and the other half. And Prtus and his Cyclopes built around Tiryns great walls of unhewn stone, which are standing to this day.But there came a prophet to that hard-hearted Acrisius and prophesied against him, and said, Because you have risen up against your own blood, your own blood shall rise up against you; because you have sinned against your kindred, by your kindred you shall be punished. Your daughter Danae shall bear a son, and by that sons hands you shall die. So the Gods have ordained, and it will surely come to pass.

Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would have been well if he had never heard. He cried half his time, and laughed the other half. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw; and when the soot got into his eyes, which it did every day in the week; and when his master beat him, which he did every day in the week; and when he had not enough to eat, which happened every day in the week likewise. And he laughed the other half of the day, when he was tossing halfpennies with the other boys, or playing leap-frog over the posts, or bowling stones at the horses legs as they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, when there was a wall at hand behind which to hide.

Editor: F. Max Muller

Editor: Fanny Kingsley

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.THESE words often puzzle and pain really good people, because they seem to put the hardest duty first. It seems, at times, so much more easy to love ones neighbour than to love God. And strange as it may seem, that is partly true. St. John tells us soHe that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Therefore many good people, who really do love God, are unhappy at times because they feel that they do not love him enough. They say in their heartsI wish to do right, and I try to do it: but I am afraid I do not do it from love to God.

In describing the underwater adventures of Tom, a chimney-sweeper''s boy who is transformed into a water-baby after he drowns, Charles Kingsley combined comic fantasy and moral fable to extraordinary effect. Tom''s encounters with friendly fish, curious lobsters, and characters such as Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby are both an exciting fairy tale and a crash course in evolutionary theory. They also reflect the quirky imagination of one of the great Victorian eccentrics. Tom''s 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.This edition reprints the original complete version of the story, and includes a lively introduction, detailed explanatory notes, and an appendix that reprints Kingsley''s first attempt to describe the mysterious creatures that live under the sea.