Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10901 in Books
• Published on: 1994-12-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Never to young, and never growing old
When The Water-Babies was read to me when I was very young, I fell in love with it. There aren't very many books that I can remember as well as this one from that age and The Water-Babies is one I will probably never forget. I always wished I was alive in those times, that I was a little girl then, and that I became a Water Baby. When I cut the cake on my 6th birthday party, my wish was that I could meet the charcters from the book, and go into the water and be a water baby. It is books like this that discourage modern authors. It's old-fashioned setting, and young characters rich and poor all add to its magic. And now if I ever hear of a chimney sweep, I think of water babies. Ellie was my favourite character and when I was little I wanted to be just like her. I even wanted my room to be done like hers. I would recommend The Water-Babies to anyone. It's magic is timeless, and I'm sure one day I will be reading it to my children with the same pleasure as my children.

Religion versus Science
Although this is a fairy story for children, adults will recognise it as also being about the battle between God and Science with the Reverend Kingsley making a great argument for God. As he says at one point, "If Mr.Garth does not find a fox in Eversley Wood - as folks sometimes fear he never will - that does not prove that there are no such things as foxes". Later, there is the tale of the fairy who has learnt to make real butterflies. When she approaches the god-like figure of Mother Carey to boast about this, Mother Carey just laughs and remarks that anyone can learn to make things if they try hard enough, but that not everyone can do what she does which is "make things make themselves." Charles Kingsley was clearly ahead of his time and may even have been predicting genetic engineering here. He had no problem with the idea of evolution and writes about it conversationally in the book, although it must have been shocking to the Victorians. Another very un-Victorian feature of the book is that all of the god-like characters are female. I think this story works brilliantly on both levels, as an imaginative fairy story for children with a moral heart, and as a progressive look at the issues which really matter. One of the all time classics.

Not a children's story
As an example of turgid, class-ridden, Victorian moralising, Water Babies has some historial interest. It is not a children's story and if used at all on minors, should be used solely as a punishment.