The water children

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"Oh, don't hurt me!" Cried Tom. "I only want to look at you; you are so handsome. ”Illustration by Jessie Wilcox Smith circa 1916. Charcoal, watercolor and oil.

The water children (English original title: The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby ) is a children's story by Charles Kingsley . It was published as a serialized story in Macmillan's Magazine from August 1862 to March 1863 and was published in book form in 1863. The book was very popular until the 1920s and was one of the most important works in English children's literature . The story, written in the style of Victorian novels, takes the form of a didactic , moral parable .

content

Little chimney sweep Tom falls into a river after meeting the rich girl Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he dies and, as a caddis fly tells him, is transformed into a "water child". His religious education begins.

Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith circa 1916. Charcoal, watercolor, and oil.

A series of adventures and lessons begins for Tom. After proving himself to be a moral being, he enjoys the company of other water children. His spiritual guides in his new world are the elves Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby (Do-as-you-would-be-done-by) and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid (Be-done-by-as-you-did) as well as Mother Carey. During the week Tom is tutored by Ellie, who also fell into the river.

His old master Grimes is drowning too. In his final adventure, Tom travels to the end of the world to help Grimes, who is being punished for his misdeeds there. Since Tom showed his willingness to do things he doesn't like, simply because the right things are to be done, he is turned back into a person. He becomes a "great scientist" who can design "railways, steam engines, telegraphs, cans and so on." Tom and Ellie are reunited.

interpretation

The story is about Christian salvation . However, Kingsley also demonstrate uses its history that England's poor mistreated, and makes the practice of child labor in question. Few readers realize that the book was in part both a satire and a serious criticism of the narrow-minded replies of some scientists of the day to Darwin's theory of evolution . In a letter dated November 18, 1859, Kingsley expressed his admiration for Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species .

Illustration "Am I a man and a brother?" From the mocking poem "Monkeyana" ( Punch , May 1861)

For example, in the story Kingsley argues that no one is entitled to claim that something does not exist simply because no one has seen it (such as the human soul or a water child):

"But there are no such things as water-babies." How do you know that? Have you been there to see? And if you had been there to see, and had seen none, that would not prove that there were none.

“But there are no water children!” How do you know? Have you been looking for them yet? If you also looked for them and found none, that is still no proof that there are none. "

- Charles Kingsley : The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby . TOHP Burnham, Boston 1864. p. 65

Tom and Ellie come across a book that tells the story of the "great and famous nation" Doasyoulikes "from the country drudgery" who leave their country to lead a boisterous life and do whatever they please (do-as- you – likes). They eventually lose the ability to speak and degenerate into gorillas . When the African explorer Paul Belloni Du Chaillu came across the last survivor, the gorilla remembers its human origins. He tries to ask: "Am I not human and a brother?" However, only an "Ubboboo" escapes him, whereupon Du Chaillu shoots him.

Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley examine a water child. Illustration by Edward Linley Sambourne in the 1885 edition.

In the summer of 1860, Kingsley first attended a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science , which was held in Oxford . There he witnessed the beginning of the argument between Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley . In the so-called " hippocampus debate " the two professors argued about whether certain brain structures, especially the " hippocampus minor ", exist in both humans and monkeys . Owen claimed that these structures were only developed in humans. He derived from this a special position of humans in the animal kingdom and denied a relationship between humans and monkeys. Kingsley created the character of Professor Ptthmllnsprts (Put-them-all-in-spirits) for his story, symbolizing both opponents, and mocked the great hippopotamus (Hippopotamus major) in the brain. Edward Linley Sambourne's re-illustration of the story in the 1885 edition shows Huxley and Owen examining a trapped water child.

In addition to Darwin, Huxley and Owen, other well-known scientists such as Roderick Murchison , Michael Faraday and Adam Sedgwick are mentioned in the story.

Adaptations

The story was filmed in 1978 under the title The Water Babies with James Mason , Bernard Cribbins and Billie Whitelaw . The German dubbing Wasserkinder premiered on December 4, 1981 in the GDR . However, the plot of the film bears little resemblance to the content of the book. Months later, ZDF showed its own version under the title The Little Chimney Sweep on the Sea Floor - it was also released on DVD.

In 1902 the story was performed as a musical at London's Garrick Theater, with texts by Rutland Barrington and music by Frederick Rosse, Albert Fox and Alfred Cellier. In 2003 it was shown as a play by Jason Carr and Gary Yershon at the Chichester Festival Theater , directed by Jeremy Sams .

Initial release

Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby was serialized in Macmillan's Magazine from August 1862 to March 1863 .

  • Chapter 1 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 6, August 1862, pp. 273-283
  • Chapter 2 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 6, September 1862, pp. 353-363
  • Chapter 3 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 6, October 1862, pp. 433-444
  • Chapter 4 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 7, November 1862, pp. 1-13
  • Chapter 5 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 7, December 1862, pp. 95-105
  • Chapter 6 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 7, January 1863, pp. 209-218
  • Chapter 7 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 7, February 1863, pp. 316-327
  • Chapter 8 , Macmillan's Magazine . Volume 7, March 1863, pp. 383-392

German editions (selection)

  • The little water children: a fairy tale for a little country child . Wartig, Leipzig 1880. German by Eduard Prätorius
  • The water children . Westermann, Braunschweig 1912. Translated from English by Eugenie Hoffmann and Rose Wenner; with 28 black text images and 4 full-color pictures by Hugo Krayn (1885–1919) online
  • The water children: a fairy tale . Trautmann, Hamburg 1947. Translation by Karl Waentig, drawings by Erich Grandeit
  • The water children - a fairy tale of river and sea . Volker Verlag, Cologne 1947. Translated into German by Wilhelm Tholen, cover and text drawings by Ulla Hebbinghaus
  • Anna Valeton: With the water children: the fairy tale story by Charles Kingsley freely retold . Herder, Freiburg 1953. With pictures by Marianne Scheel
  • The water children . Sauerländer Verlag, 1986. Translated by Helga Pfetsch, with illustrations by Susan Rowe. ISBN 3-7941-2258-5

proof

literature

  • Charles Kingsley: The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby . TOHP Burnham, Boston 1864, online
  • Richard Milner: The Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's Search for Its Origins . Facts on File, New York 1990, ISBN 0-8160-1472-8
  • Nicolaas A. Rupke: Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin . Revised edition, University of Chicago Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-226-73177-3 , pp. 221-222
  • Sandy Hobbs, Jim McKechnie, Michael Lavalette: Child labor: a world history companion . ABC-CLIO, 1999, ISBN 0-87436-956-8 , p. 246

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Kingsley to Charles Darwin, Nov. 18, 1859, Letter 2534 in The Darwin Correspondence Project, (accessed September 5, 2009).
  2. ↑ The water children . Westermann, Braunschweig 1912, p. 39
  3. ↑ A reference to the derisive poem "Monkeyana" published in May 1861 in the magazine Punch and the accompanying illustration "Am I not a man and a brother?"
  4. ^ The Water Babies . Boston 1864, pp. 214-221
  5. ^ Rupke, p. 221
  6. ^ Rupke, p. 222
  7. ^ The Water Babies . Boston 1864, p. 136 f.
  8. ↑ Entry at biblio.com (accessed April 7, 2018)
  9. ^ The Water Babies . Boston 1864, p. 66
  10. ↑ The Little Sweep on the seabed in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Web links