Livres - Bibliographie

"Les Mille et une nuits" est, sans conteste, l'une des œuvres les plus célèbres de la littérature universelle. Un passionnant labyrinthe de récits qui, par leur magie, captivent le lecteur au point qu'il en vient à redouter le lever du jour.

Cette anthologie de contes populaires du Moyen-Orient, écrite en langue arabe, fut compilée entre les VIIIe et XIVe siècles. On en doit la première version européenne à l'orientaliste français Antoine Galland qui la traduisit entre 1704 et 1717. En repartant du texte de Galland, Andrew Lang proposa une nouvelle anthologie rassemblant les histoires les plus passionnantes que nous vous présentons dans ce volume. Grâce à ce travail, l'Occident, émerveillé, découvrit un univers exotique et exubérant peuplé de sultans, de génies et de princesses et marqué par les palpitantes aventures de personnages mythiques tels que Shéhérazade, Sindbad ou encore Aladdin.

[Source : À propos de l'œuvre, p. 9]

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Édition illustrée par Viriginia Frances Sterrett.

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SOMMAIRE

• Les Mille et une nuits

• Le Marchand et le Génie

• Histoire du premier vieillard et de la biche

• Histoire du second vieillard et des deux chiens noirs

• Histoire de Noureddin et de la Belle Persienne

• Histoire d'Aladdin, ou La Lampe merveilleuse

• Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette

• Les Sept voyages de Sindbad le marin

• Histoire du petit bossu

• Histoire du cinquième frère du barbier

Full title:

The Water-Babies

Published:

1863, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Held by:

British Library

The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, by the Cambridge history professor, the Rev. Charles Kingsley (1819–1875), was published as a book in 1863, but first appeared in serial parts from 1862–63 in Macmillan’s Magazine. The story deals with the moral education and Christian redemption of a young chimney sweep called Tom, who after drowning is transformed into a ‘water baby’. Taking up this ‘second chance’, he ‘evolves’ into a strong and worthy man capable of engaging with the modern world.

Though a Church of England priest, Kingsley was sympathetic to the views on evolution expressed by Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose On the Origin of Species he had read and approved of on its publication in 1859. The Water-Babies satirises contemporary debates about inherited traits (and supports Darwin’s ideas), and also critiques child labour and mistreatment of the poor.

The first edition had just two black and white illustrations, though later editions featured a wide variety of artwork from many different artists. Some aspects of the book, such as its racial stereotyping, have dated badly. Others – the science of nature being as outlandish as any fairytale, or the interlinking of the fate of nature with moral issues – remain relevant.

http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/charles-kingsleys-the-water-babies

The novel begins as Tom, a somewhat hapless figure, wanders the countryside and becomes infatuated with the daughter of a wealthy man named Ellie. After entering her house, he is chased away and falls into a river nearby. He drowns, emerging as a “water-baby,” described as an insect that frequently molts. The remainder of the story concerns Tom’s moral education in the narrative framework of his journey towards redemption as a good Christian boy. Kingsley uses Tom’s endeavor to subtly undermine contemporary social problems in England, including its brutal treatment of those in poverty, as well as unconscionable child labor issues.

Work by Charles Kingsley, a prolific English novelist and author whose main power lay in his descriptive faculties. Kingsley's interest in history spilled over into his writings, which include The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children (1856), a children's book about Greek mythology, and several historical novels, of which the best known are Hypatia (1853), Hereward, the Last of the English (1865), and Westward Ho! (1855).