The Water-babies

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s. In the style of Victorian-era novels, The Water-Babies is a didactic moral fable. Neither at the time it was published, nor certainly in the present day, have most readers realised that the book had been intended in part as both a satire and as a serious critique of the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day.