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The Water Babies is another English children's classic. The full title is, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. It was written for children by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. He published it during 1862-63 in serial form for Macmillan's Magazine. Serialization was a common form of publishing novels in the 19th century. Dickens published his novel in this way. Kingsly published the first book in 1863 after the magazine run. The book was extremely popular during its day, and especially appealing after lithography made printed illustrations more effective. It was particularly popular in the 1920s when it was published with beautiful color illustrations. A reader writes, "I found an old book from that I remember with some fondness from ny my childhood . It is a classic English Victorian children's novel with a beautiful colour illustrtions about a young chimney sweep in England during the early Victorian period. He is rescued from his miserable life by being magically turned into a water baby, a child leaving beneath the sea." Several different illustrators have prepared drawing for various editions.
The Water Babies is another English children's classic. The full title is, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. Kingsley did not set out to write a children's book. but rather a piece of social satire.
"The Water Babies" was written for children by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. He was deeply concernbed about child labor. An English reader writes, "A curious thing about The Water Babies is that Kingsley lived in Eversley in Hampshire, a couple of villages away from where I was brought up, and I would suspect his conception of Tom would have been formed from social reports in the newspapers rather than actual experience as Eversley was, and is, a very rural place. There would obviously have been a great deal of child labour there but I suspect it would all have been farm work." HBC wondered if there were not chimleys in rural areas. Our reader replies, "Well, obviously far far fewer but the thing to bear in mind here is that using boys as chimney sweeps had been outlawed a couple of decades before Kingsley wrote the book. In such rural areas, I can't picture climbing boys; there would probably only be one Manor House in each place suitable for the task, everyone else living in small cottages."
He published it during 1862-63 in serial form for Macmillan's Magazine. Serialization was a common form of publishing novels in the 19th century. Dickens published his novel in this way. Kingsly published the first book in 1863 after the magazine run.
The book was extremely popular during its day, and especially appealing after lithography made printed illustrations more effective. It was particularly popular in the 1920s when it was published with beautiful color illustrations.
A reader writes, "I found an old book from that I remember with some fondness from ny my childhood . It is a classic English Victorian children's novel with a beautiful colour illustrtions about a young chimney sweep in England during the early Victorian period. He is rescued from his miserable life by being magically turned into a water baby, a child leaving beneath the sea."
Several different illustrators have prepared drawing for various editions. The edition pictured here was published by Chiswick Press during 1942. This was during World War II. The British at the time restricted publishing. The wood pulp needed for paper had to be imported from Canada and the United States though U-boat infested waters.) The illustrators were Janet and Anne Johnstone.
Boys in the early- and mid- 19th century night be sold by their parents or might never know them. Some lived on the streets supporting themelves by begging or stealing as depicted in "Oliver!". Some were taken in by adults because they could work. Such was the case of Tom in The Water-Baby. Kingsley writes, "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." [Kingsley, p.13.] Kingsley points out that the boys rarely saw any of the money they earned. He writes, "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." [Kingsley, p.13.]
Through the first half of the 19th century, English home owners cleaned their chimneys by hiring chimney sweep to bring small children to go up the chimeys to clean out the soot. Chimey sweeps either used theirown children or hired or bought boys from poor families. I believe this was a common practice throughout Europe, but only have information on England. Here it was the punlication of Charles Kingsley's satirical work The Water-Babies (1862-63) in serial form that compelled Parliament 1-year later to outlaw the practice. We have not yet been able to find a photogrph of an actual chimey sweep. The British Government prohibited the use of children before photography became commonplace. we are not sure of the time-line in other countries. There may well be some photograph of child sweeps, but we have not yet been able to find one. There are numerous illustrations, but here we are unsue as to their accuracy.
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