Alderson, Brian. “Introduction” to Charles Kingsley,
The
Water-Babies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995): ix-xxix.
In his introduction to a 1995 edition of The Water-Babies Alderson
discusses the story's first publication as a serial in Macmillan's Magazine,
the subsequent revision of the text for its appearance in book format in
May 1863, and the contemporary market for children's literature. After
a lengthy analysis of The Water-Babies, Alderson treats some of
the critical reaction to it. He concludes with a discussion of the importance
of Kingsley's authorial presence in the novel.
The Water-Babies;
Publication;
Macmillan’s
Magazine; Reception of Kingsley's Works.
Hertz, Alan. “The Broad Church Militant and Newman's
Humiliation of Charles Kingsley,” Victorian Periodicals Review Vol.
XIX, No. 4 (Winter 1986): 141-9.
Hertz considers the role of the editors of Macmillan’s Magazine
in permitting the inclusion of Kingsley’s slander of Newman. He argues
that David Masson, the editor, and Alexander Macmillan himself failed to
protect Kingsley, and themselves, from his bigotry and from Newman’s consummate
skill. He shows that “What, Then, Does Dr. Newman Mean?” was essentially
a group effort where Kingsley was aided by experienced controversialists
who did not succeed in assessing his chances of success adequately.
Hertz also discusses the contemptuous review of the Apologia by
Froude in Fraser’s Magazine which caused Froude and Kingsley to
be bound more closely together than ever before. Overall, the outcome,
declares Hertz, was pejorative: “The failure of Macmillan and Masson
to save Kingsley from his own prejudice and impetuosity led to the weakening
of progressive journalism and the impoverishment of Liberal intellectual
discourse” (148).
Macmillan’s
Magazine; Newman Controversy;
Froude;
Maurice.
Uffelman, Larry, and Patrick Scott. “Kingsley's
Serial Novels, II: The Water-Babies,” Victorian Periodicals Review
Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Winter 1986): 122-131.
Uffelman and Scott, utilizing the Macmillan archive in the British
Library, examine the revision into book form of The Water-Babies,
first published serially from August 1862 to March 1863 in eight monthly
episodes in Macmillan’s Magazine. The revisions were extensive
and included a softening of style and mood from the adult oriented text
in Macmillan’s Magazine to one more suitable for children, a tempering
of the serial version’s anti-Americanism, and, most important, “the systematic
introduction of a new character, the old Irishwoman, to link together the
real world of the opening with the spiritual and fantasy world of the Water-Babies”
(122).
The Water-Babies;
Publication;
Macmillan’s
Magazine; Anti-Americanism.
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