Resumo de The Water-babies - Kingsley, Charles

The Water-Babies is?quite literally?a rare treasure of a book, an antique fairy tale first published in 1863, which was long out of print. I was given a very old and battered copy by a friend who was moving. The book was reposing among the rest of the detritus of a long-unexplored shelf?destined, I guess, to remain there ?until the coming of the Cocqcigrues.? The book languished at least a year before anyone at our house read it, and our whole family was soon hearing rave reviews, such as, ?This is the best book I?ve ever read!??which is a pretty good review. Since The Water Babies is a Victorian fairy-tale, it also manages to be a morality tale as well. Kingsley is telling the story to his little son, and elucidates it with his own observations about good and evil, while the story itself includes such characters as the fairy, Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, and her sister, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. Yet it is a morality tale in the spirit of Hans Christian Anderson?as sweet and delicate?and tasty?as a chocolate soufflé. Sensitive readers will encounter some Victorian views and opinions that are likely to offend?unless, as I suspect, they?ve been edited out of the abridged versions. But there are certain moral advantages to being treated to all that is quaint and curious in old literature: Future generations may well be jarred by the casual brutality, bigotry, and injustice of some of our modern attitudes. Quite a few editions of The Water-Babies are now available, some of them delightfully illustrated. It is impossible to do justice to the book with a mere summary of the story, since so much of its charm lies in the wit and delicacy of the writing. The protagonist is Tom, a coal-blackened little chimney sweep of the 1800s. Tom is dirty, ignorant, and known to throw bricks at horses? legs, ?as is the custom of that country when they welcome strangers.? When Tom?s master, Grimes, gets a job cleaning the chimneys at Harthover Place, Grimes ?was so delighted with his new customer that he knocked Tom down out of hand.? Tom gets into trouble at Harthover Place, runs away, and drowns in a brook: not the end of Tom, but the beginning of Tom?s career as a water-baby. The fairies ?took him,? you see, and, ?Tom, when he woke, for of course he woke?children always wake after they have slept exactly as long as is good for them?found himself swimming about in the stream, being about four inches?or, that I may be accurate?3.87902 inches long and having round the parotid region of his fauces a set of external gills (I hope you understood all the big words)?which he mistook for a lace frill, till he pulled at them, found he hurt himself, and made up his mind that they were part of himself, and best left alone.? Meanwhile, ?the keeper, and the groom, and Sir John made a great mistake and were very unhappy without any reason, when they found a black thing in the water and said it was Tom?s body, and that he had been drowned?.All the while Tom was swimming about in the river, with a pretty little lace-collar around his neck, lively as a grig.? In the brook, Tom makes friends with the water creatures, and talks things over with dragon flies, trout, and caddises. Later, Tom ventures out to the wide sea and eventually finds the other water-babies, whose home is St. Brandan?s Fairy Isle (an island that sank into the sea, which, Kingsley tells us, is the very same island that Plato called Atlantis). There Tom meets Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, whose job it is to treat people as they have treated others, and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, the motherly fairy who is kind to all the water-babies. At last, after learning to be a very good boy, Tom sets off to the World?s End to be like those who ?go where they do not like, and do what do not like, and help somebody they do not like,? so that he may be allowed to go to ?a very beautiful place.? Finally, at The-Other-End-of-Nowhere, he meets with Grimes, the master sweep who abused Tom when he was a poor chimney sweep. Tom frees Grimes from where he is stuck in a chimney, so that he may have another chance, and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid takes Tom, by the Backstairs, to the very beautiful place. How to get up to the very beautiful place by the Backstairs, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid explains to Tom, is a secret almost everyone wants to be in on?and therefore she must blindfold Tom, lest he be importuned half to death by all the people wanting to know it. Kingsley explains that the meaning of all this is that we all ought to be kind to efts, and so brings the story to a close. The Water-Babies is a book of great charm and deserves a place in the libraries of people who enjoy curious old books, a well-told tale?and, especially, people who enjoy fairy-tales.

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