The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862–1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The book was extremely popular in the United Kingdom and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in America in part due to its prejudices against Irish, Jews, Catholics, and Americans.
The Water Babies (illustrated by Linley Sambourne), Macmillan & Co., London 1885
"Oh, don't hurt me!" cried Tom. "I only want to look at you; you are so handsome." Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith (c. 1916); charcoal, water, and oil; digitally restored.
"Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid" Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith (c. 1916); charcoal, water, and oil; digitally restored.
Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley inspect a water baby in Linley Sambourne's 1885 illustration.
Charles Kingsley was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labour cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms.
Charles Kingsley
Caricature by Adriano Cecioni published in Vanity Fair in 1872.
Kingsley
A statue of Charles Kingsley at Bideford, Devon (UK)