A new edition of Kingsley's extraordinary children's fantasy that reprints the original first-edition text and illustrations and explores the book's many different facets.
Conventionally regarded as a children's book in its many abridged and expurgated versions, this complete edition reveals the story's other genres, as social polemic, topical satire, moral fable, evolutionary tract, naturalist's handbook, and fairy tale.
Introduction by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst explores the genesis and context of Kingsley's tale, its linguistic oddities and imaginative exuberance, delight in nature and scientific discovery mixed with romance and mythic symbolism.
First-edition text includes 2 full-page illustrations and 8 engraved chapter initials.
Explanatory notes provide a wealth of background information concerning contemporary figures, literature, and events alluded to in the text.
Includes an appendix of variants between serial and volume publication and part of Kingsley's essay 'The Wonders of the Shore' in which he first wrote about the myriad creatures living underwater.
