The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley / 1942 JM Dent, London / Wonderfully Illustrated by Margaret Tarrant / Scarce Vintage Hardback Book

Here is a wonderful vintage edition of The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. Originally published in this edition by JM Dent and Co. London in 1908. This copy is a reprint from 1942 with 12 beautiful illustrations by Margaret Tarrant and striking illustrated boards. This copy is 82 years old and has a few condition points to note, detailed below, but nothing major and it is a lovely book.

The Water-Babies was first published in its entirety in 1863.  It is Kingsley's masterpiece which he wrote effortlessly. The first inspired chapter took him only half an hour, and was instantly successful. He intended it to stir the Victorian conscience against the use of children as chimney sweeps, and it was successful in that a year later this practice was banned.

“The most wonderful and the strongest things in the world, you know, are just the things which no one can see.” 

Margaret Tarrant was an English illustrator, and children's author, specializing in depictions of fairy-like children and religious subjects. She began her career at the age of 20, and painted and published into the early 1950s. She was known for her children's books, postcards, calendars, and print reproductions. It was the 1908 version of The Water Babies which launched Tarrant's career.

This is an extremely attractive edition. The pages are clean and tightly bound. Has a small inked inscription on the front free endpaper. With a small pink ink blot to one page and mildly to the edge of one colour plate (see close-up photo). With the occasional spot and brown blemish and the odd nicked edge and folded corner tip. The top closed edge is tinted dark green, with mild spotting to the other two sides.

All of the delightful colour plates are present and in addition there are further black line drawn illustrations at the beginning of each chapter and colour frontispiece and title page.

The decorative front board and spine is one of the best I have seen for any edition of The Water Babies. The cream, green and rust brown colour scheme depicts water babies, seahorses, shells, fish etc. The cloth has some mild rubbing around the edges and to the corners but is overall clean and very good. The rear board is plain cream. The illustrated spine retains its bright colour scheme and just has some very slight rubbing of the cloth at the head and tail, and a crease mark.

A scarce edition. Your vintage copy of The Water Babies will be wrapped with care in tissue and ribbon will be wrapped with care in tissue and ribbon* and sent well packaged. I am always happy to add a gift card with message to the parcel.

H 20 cm x W 15.5 cm, 284 pages, 0.48 kg. I dispatch worldwide daily from the UK. (There are just a very few countries which I am unable to ship to).

* If you would prefer for your book not to be decoratively wrapped and sent simply in the full protective packaging please add a note to the order.

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