Charles Kingsley
(1819-1875) |
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| Charles Kingsley - poet, novelist, priest, scientist, political,
social and literary critic -was one of the Victorian age's
most prolific authors. He was born on 12th July, 1819 to Mary
Lucas Kingsley and Charles Kingsley Senior at Holne Vicarage
near Dartmoor, Devonshire, England. His school years were
spent at Helston Grammar School in Cornwall where the headmaster
was the Reverend Derwent Coleridge, son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
During this time he showed a great interest in art, botany
and geology and wrote much poetry. After studying at King's
College, London and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he graduated
with a first class degree in classics and a second in mathematics. |
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On July 6th, 1839 Charles met and fell in love
with Frances Grenfell (Fanny), the daughter of a prosperous
family and several years older than him. In 1842, Charles
Kingsley left Cambridge to read for Holy Orders and in July
of that year he became curate of Eversley Church in Hampshire,
where he was to serve for the rest of his life, working feverishly
to improve the appalling physical, social and educational
conditions of his parishioners. He and Fanny were married
in January 1844 and in May his extensive work as curate was
rewarded when he was appointed rector of Eversley Church. |
| In 1848 Kingsley moved onto the public stage in response
to the working class agitation that climaxed in the Chartist
collapse of that year. He then joined with F.D. Maurice, J.M.
Ludlow and others to form the Christian Socialist movement.
Kingsley published Workmen of
England anonymously but he also adopted the pseudonym
"Parson Lot" through which his Christian Socialist
sympathies were voiced. During the next decade his written
work highlighted the deplorable living conditions in both
agricultural and city society of that time. |
| In 1854 the Kingsleys moved to Bideford
on the north coast of Devon where Charles wrote his historical
romance Westward Ho!,
probably the most widely-read of all his novels with the
exception of The Water Babies.
In 1855 he published Glaucus;
Or The Wonders Of The Shore, an introduction to natural
history and one of the first books of its kind to be written
specifically for children. In 1856 his interest turned to
heroes and heroism with The
Heroes or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children, a retelling
of ancient tales which indicated Kingsley's growing interest
in writing for children.
The year 1859 was important for Kingsley's career and ascendance
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| the social ladder. He was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria
and had the honour of preaching before the court at Windsor
Castle. In 1860 he was offered the Regius Chair of Modern
History at Cambridge and the following year he was appointed
tutor to the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. |
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The Water- Babies
a Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby appeared serially in Macmillan's
Magazine in 1862 and was published in volume format in 1863,
with two full page illustrations by J. Noel Paton. While the
first edition is a very collectable and scarce item, there
have also been numerous illustrated editions, many of which
are extremely popular with collectors, and values range from
just a few pounds for the later editions to well over £100
for earlier versions. The many versions that are available
are as sought-after for their illustrations as they are for
the text. By the time Kingsley came to write The
Water-Babies, he had established himself as one of
the leading figures of his age, and the book's instant success
added enormously to hisprestige. It quickly became a classic
all over the world. Edward Lear wrote to Kingsley that he
"firmly believed it all to be true" as has many
a child since then. |
| Some critics have complained that "Kingsley's
greatest aim was to wash the British working class clean
with middle-class soap and water, like Tom the chimney sweep".
Whatever the origins of Kingsley's particular obsession,
it led to the creation of an immortal fable which will keep
his name alive long after the rest of his controversial
career is forgotten.
Kingsley's final novel Hereward
The Wake appeared in 1866. During 1868 and 1869 he
published a series of articles for children and these were
collected and issued in 1870 as
Lady Why and Madam How: First Lessons in Earth Lore for
Children. He toured the West Indies in 1870 and |
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produced notes that became
At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies in 1871.He
published Town Geology
and became the President of the Midland Institute in Birmingham
in 1872. He made an exhausting tour of America for six months
and published Health and Education
in 1874. When he came back to England he was worn out and,
having contracted pneumonia, he died at Eversley on January
23rd 1875.
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| Contributed
by
Nicola Phillips |
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