I started reading this at bedtimes with my 6-year-old and 2-year-old but with the antiquated text (this book dates to 1863), the long sentences and the many unnecessary diversions I stopped. This book would certainly have been edited a lot differently if it were to be published anew today.
This is a book for adults. Right from the way it has been presented with the dust jacket, the attached ribbon bookmark and the chapters number with Roman numerals, right through to the actual contents with an appendix being devoted to textual variants between the original published book form, as replicated in this book, and the preceding version as serialised in Macmillan's Magazine, something that only the most dedicated are going to refer to.
The book doesn't even start with the story, that begins after 49 pages of introduction and chronology of the author Charles Kingsley's life. The introduction is good though. It gives some context about the way Victorian society was at the time, with the way the railways provided the Victorians the means to get down to the seaside and take in all the coastal wildlife, and how popular that was, through to the Victorians' views on cleanliness and how that was reflected in Kingsley's tale. But it also gives quotes from reviews of the time that reflected some of my experiences with the book: "writing which is repeatedly stalled", "a jerkily episodic narrative", and "one of the most uneven and ragbaggy books in the language".
However upon reading there are good points too. You can see the love of nature pour out of the page in places, and the story contains many a moral for a young lad growing up (for the story is written for a boy and referenced so in many places).
The story itself follows Tom, a chimney sweep, who is mistreated by his master Grimes. In the introduction it talks of how the Water-Babies played a major role in the introduction of the chimney sweep act to prevent mis-use of children like this. Anyway Tom is accused of being a thief, although he is innocent, and he is chased far until he is exhausted and is drawn to a river where he drowns and becomes a water-baby.
As a water-baby he goes on many an adventure but the narrative is very full of ideas and not really going anywhere until near the end, although there are good moments along the way as Tom meets all sorts of creatures of the streams and sea and talks to them. But all the while he wants to meet other water-babies but he doesn't see any until he does a good deed one time and sees many so that "he knew that he had been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along; only he did not know them, because his eyes and ears were not opened."
After that he meets the fairies Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby who teach him some lessons. Finally he learns that to become a man he must do what he doesn't want, and Tom knows that that is to see his old master Grimes again. So he has a final journey to do to the Other-end-of-Nowhere.
And lots of surreal stuff goes on throughout, with the text also being experimental with poems songs and lists thrown in as and when Kingsley saw fit.
But a happy ending at the end. And as it is a fairy tale "you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true."
So a book for adults to keep on a shelf, and if you want children to enjoy this tale too I recommend getting one of the abridged versions made for the modern audience.
(I got this book through Amazon Vine UK. It is listed HERE.)
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