The Water-Babies

by Charles Kingsley

The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby was first published in 1863. We feature the 1922 edition illustrated by Warwick Goble. Verses by William Wordsworth, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge close each chapter. Kingsley's preface:

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined;
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think,
What man has made of man.
                         -Wordsworth

This book is featured in our collection of Books for Young Readers.

Table of Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII and Last

The Moral

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