Bedside Stories

• Posted by Rachel de Blanc March 24, 2009 Filed in Society Girl's Personal Blogs 909 views
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  I have recently remembered a significant event from my childhood, which provides a little insight into what was to follow.
  
  On the bedside table of my grandparent’s house, where I would occasionally stay when my parents were at an event, was a children’s novel, The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.
  
  That small, leather-bound book was always too long to read during the course of one evening (hey, I was about 4 or 5..) and so I often failed to progress beyond the first few chapters.
  
  The main character (a chimney boy) flees his employment and whilst chased falls into a stream, where immersed within the water he is magically transformed into a Water Baby.
  The morals of the story, a comment upon Victorian emancipation, a metaphorical religious awakening, social commentary etc were all lost on me. I was however, completely fascinated by the transformation of this urchin into a magical water-borne infant, and the process the child went through.
  
  I eagerly anticipated re-reading the opening chapters and falling asleep dreaming of some magical physical change.
  
  Have you read it?