-
The Water-Babies
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Adventures of Pinocchio (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Carlo Collodi
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once upon a time, there was a talking, walking, dancing piece of wood. His name was Pinocchio, the marionette created from an enchanted log by Tuscan woodcarver Geppetto. The miraculous puppet dreams of being a real boy, but he has a mischievous streak. Pinocchio fights, kicks, lies, and runs away before Geppetto can teach him the lessons of life.
-
-
This book is Awesome!😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
- By C. Smith on 04-26-19
By: Carlo Collodi
-
The Pilgrim's Regress
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book written by C.S. Lewis after his conversion, The Pilgrim's Regress is, in a sense, a record of Lewis's own search for meaning and spiritual satisfaction that eventually led him to Christianity.
-
-
Lewis At His Most Cutting. Great SBJ Companion.
- By James on 02-11-18
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Wee Free Men
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Stephen Briggs
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle, aka the Wee Free Men, a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny.
-
-
First Sight and Second Thoughts
- By Richard on 02-21-05
By: Terry Pratchett
-
The Magician's Nephew
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to...somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis, before they finally return home.
-
-
How it all started
- By Denise on 03-20-07
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A natural storyteller and raconteur in his own right - just listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe and Gumption - actor, comedian, carpenter, and all-around manly man Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) brings his distinctive baritone and a fine-tuned comic versatility to Twain's writing. In a knockout performance, he doesn't so much as read Twain's words as he does rejoice in them, delighting in the hijinks of Tom - whom he lovingly refers to as a "great scam artist" and "true American hero".
-
-
Even better as an Adult!
- By Rick on 01-10-17
By: Mark Twain
-
The Once and Future King
- By: T. H. White
- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 33 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complete "box set" of T. H. White's epic fantasy novel of the Arthurian legend. The novel is made up of five parts: "The Sword in the Stone", "The Witch in the Wood", "The Ill-Made Knight", "The Candle in the Wind", and "The Book of Merlyn".
-
-
Five Books, Four Stars
- By John on 07-18-17
By: T. H. White
-
The Adventures of Pinocchio (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Carlo Collodi
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once upon a time, there was a talking, walking, dancing piece of wood. His name was Pinocchio, the marionette created from an enchanted log by Tuscan woodcarver Geppetto. The miraculous puppet dreams of being a real boy, but he has a mischievous streak. Pinocchio fights, kicks, lies, and runs away before Geppetto can teach him the lessons of life.
-
-
This book is Awesome!😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
- By C. Smith on 04-26-19
By: Carlo Collodi
-
The Pilgrim's Regress
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book written by C.S. Lewis after his conversion, The Pilgrim's Regress is, in a sense, a record of Lewis's own search for meaning and spiritual satisfaction that eventually led him to Christianity.
-
-
Lewis At His Most Cutting. Great SBJ Companion.
- By James on 02-11-18
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Wee Free Men
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Stephen Briggs
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle, aka the Wee Free Men, a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny.
-
-
First Sight and Second Thoughts
- By Richard on 02-21-05
By: Terry Pratchett
-
The Magician's Nephew
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to...somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis, before they finally return home.
-
-
How it all started
- By Denise on 03-20-07
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A natural storyteller and raconteur in his own right - just listen to Paddle Your Own Canoe and Gumption - actor, comedian, carpenter, and all-around manly man Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) brings his distinctive baritone and a fine-tuned comic versatility to Twain's writing. In a knockout performance, he doesn't so much as read Twain's words as he does rejoice in them, delighting in the hijinks of Tom - whom he lovingly refers to as a "great scam artist" and "true American hero".
-
-
Even better as an Adult!
- By Rick on 01-10-17
By: Mark Twain
-
The Once and Future King
- By: T. H. White
- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 33 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complete "box set" of T. H. White's epic fantasy novel of the Arthurian legend. The novel is made up of five parts: "The Sword in the Stone", "The Witch in the Wood", "The Ill-Made Knight", "The Candle in the Wind", and "The Book of Merlyn".
-
-
Five Books, Four Stars
- By John on 07-18-17
By: T. H. White
-
The Wind in the Willows
- By: Kenneth Grahame
- Narrated by: Michael Hordern
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is a timeless tale of waterside Britain that has been loved by generations of children and acclaimed as a classic. The story of Mole, Ratty, Badger, and Toad, and their escapades, whether messing about on the river or poop-pooping in Toad's shiny new car, cannot fail to enchant.
-
-
My favorate read version of the willows!
- By J. Glemby on 09-18-14
By: Kenneth Grahame
-
My Family and Other Animals
- By: Gerald Durrell
- Narrated by: Nigel Davenport
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This memoir is soaked in the sunshine of Corfu, where Gerald Durrell lived as a boy, surrounded by his eccentric family - as well as puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies.
-
-
Another kid lit favorite.
- By J and M on 12-16-16
By: Gerald Durrell
-
Ireland
- By: Frank Delaney
- Narrated by: Frank Delaney
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a bed and a warm meal, he invites his hosts and their neighbors to join him by the wintry fireside and begins to tell formative stories of Ireland's history. Ronan, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the storytelling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again.
-
-
Simply Grand!
- By Kathleen on 07-16-05
By: Frank Delaney
-
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald & The Goblin and the Grocer by Hans Christian Andersen (Annotated)
- By: George MacDonald, Hans Christian Andersen
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Princess and the Goblin was published in 1872. One of the very first fantasy novels this magical classic had a profound influence on the work of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and is loved by fans of fantasy fiction to this day. Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives in a remote mountainous region with no one but her nursemaid for company. Then she meets a mysterious old woman and Curdie, a young miner.
-
-
Hurray for Curdie!
- By Reg on 11-15-16
By: George MacDonald, and others
-
The Reluctant Dragon
- By: Kenneth Grahame
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Boy lives in a cottage with his mother and father, and the Dragon lives in a cave on the Downs. The Boy is his only friend. The Dragon is not at all the sort of Dragon one might expect to meet, however: he's polite and friendly.
-
-
teaches without being didactic
- By Lori K. on 01-14-17
By: Kenneth Grahame
-
The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection
- All 22 Stories
- By: L. Frank Baum
- Narrated by: Eric Vincent
- Length: 90 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the complete Wizard of Oz collection of 22 stories written by L. Frank Baum. This is the only complete collection that includes all the Oz stories. All 22 stories are fully complete. They include the dedication and the introduction of each story/book. In this collection, you will find stories not available in other collections. It even includes stories published after the death of L. Frank Baum.
-
-
Audio chapter list below as was missing
- By MM on 04-09-14
By: L. Frank Baum
-
Tales from the Perilous Realm
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combined into one volume, this is the definitive collection of Tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of The Hobbit, read by Derek Jacobi. The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are joined here in one volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for listeners young and old.
-
-
Thoroughly charming
- By VMR on 09-21-19
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
-
A Little Princess
- By: Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Narrated by: Virginia Leishman
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten-year-old Sarah Crue lives life like a princess until tragedy strikes, taking away her fine clothes and privileges. Without her velvet and silk and French maids, she's no longer the envy of all the girls at Miss Minchin's London boarding school, and even has to live in the school's attic, working for the students who were once her friends. Will Sarah's spirit remain unbowed? Follow her through her trials and triumphs in this unforgettable tale beloved by children the world over.
-
-
Credit Worthy Narration
- By File Squirrel on 08-29-09
-
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates
- By: Mary Mapes Dodge
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Can young Hans Brinker win the silver skates that are the only hope of saving his family from ruin? Hans and his little sister Gretel live in Holland, a colorful and exciting country of windmills and great canals. Unfortunately, the Brinkers are very poor and their father is ill, and Hans wonders whether they'll survive the long, harsh winter. Then he finds out about an ice skating race, and the prize - a pair of shiny silver skates - that might help his family survive.
-
-
Entertaining except for the digressions
- By Ellen Spertus on 03-13-03
By: Mary Mapes Dodge
-
Nation
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Stephen Briggs
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirteen-year-old Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle, Daphne - a girl from the other side of the globe - is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.
-
-
Transcends categories
- By Amazon Customer on 11-22-08
By: Terry Pratchett
-
English Fairy Tales
- By: Flora Annie Steele - adaptation
- Narrated by: Joanna Daniell
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While fairy tales were not originally intended for children, they have become a staple of children's literature since the early 19th century. Here is a collection of English fairy tales, including many stories you will remember from childhood.
-
-
Awsome
- By TracyT on 07-16-17
-
The Book of Dragons
- By: Edith Nesbit
- Narrated by: Cathy Dobson
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1900, The Book Of Dragons is one of Edith Nesbit's best loved and most inventive children’s books. Her heroes and heroines are children faced unexpectedly with real live dragons, which are fiery, fierce, ravenous, irritating, grumpy, furry and even gifted cooks! They appear from caves, from the pages of a magical book, at the North Pole or from mysterious dungeons where nobody dares enter.
-
-
Dragons
- By A reader on 10-05-17
By: Edith Nesbit
Publisher's Summary
A classic since its first publication in 1863, The Water-Babies is the story of a little chimney sweep named Tom and his magical adventures beneath the waves. The ill-treated Tom flees his dangerous toil and his cruel master, Grimes. When he jumps into a cool stream to clean the soot off himself, he becomes a water-baby, cleaner and happier than he has ever been, in a hidden fairy world. There, Tom meets haughty dragonflies, makes friends with a slow-witted lobster, and dodges hungry otters. Eventually, he meets the other water-babies and their clever rulers, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. After a long and arduous quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, young Tom achieves his heart’s desire.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about The Water-Babies
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jefferson
- 06-24-12
Moral Evolution in a Strange Delightful Fairy Tale
In The Water-Babies (1863) by Charles Kingsley, poor little Tom is an orphaned chimney sweep who knows nothing of Jesus and prayers or of bees and honey, who is black all over with dirt and soot, and whose master Grimes is a selfish and brutal man. But everything changes for Tom when he meets a mysterious barefoot Irish washerwoman who says, "Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be; and those that wish to be foul, foul they will be." When Tom, repeating, "I must be clean, I must be clean," tumbles into a clear stream, the major fantastic "fairy tale" movement of the novel begins. Transformed by fairies into a tiny water-baby (3.87902 inches long!), he embarks on a series of adventures that give him a moral education and matching physical metamorphoses. While at first his experiences involve encounters with natural creatures (like caddis flies, dragonflies, trout, and lobsters), which Kinglsey depicts with both 19th century scientific accuracy and fantastic moral imagination, they become more allegorical and satirical the farther Tom goes, as when, for example, he visits Gulliver's Laputa.
Simon Vance gives his usual accurate, clear, and appealing reading, and I really liked his cockney (?) Tom, though there are a couple places where he repeats lines, and one moment of static.
The Water-Babies is a strange book. I can't imagine today's children being able to enjoy much of it. It has difficult vocabulary, quotations from great writers, references to Greek mythology and famous scientists, paradoxical concepts about reality, truth, and imagination, repeated addresses to the male reader ("my little man"), and satires of Victorian education, fashion, science, poverty, and class. And the novel is intensely moral, at times didactically so, closer in spirit to the work of George MacDonald than to that of Lewis Carroll. Perhaps children would not respond to Kingsley's message that to become a good adult, we must learn to do what we do not like, as in helping a person who has harmed us, and to avoid doing what we like, or else we will be beasts. And I dislike his message that our souls make our bodies.
And yet a love for language and for the world and all its creatures shines through the novel, by turns humorously, beautifully, or movingly. Although he was an Anglican priest, Kingsley does not overtly push his Christianity and rather shares his enthusiasm for evolution (applied moralistically to shape how species and individuals change according to their souls and actions). And he wants parents and educators to respect children and wants children to treat everything with curiosity and kindness.
If you're interested in Victorian children's literature, you should listen to The Water-Babies. But be prepared to rewind a lot or, once you finish, to listen to it again or to read the free online text. It's unique and worth the effort.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer P.
- 02-21-22
One Lesson for old and and one for the young
How wise Kingsley was; you could not hear him in The Water Babies and not see this for yourself. From my perspective at least, Water Babies is not your children’s lesson in the evils of human nature alone. It is wonderfully written by a wise and old soul with a warning lesson and story for the young and a second lesson for parents and adults. The young will hear in it the warning of challenges ahead for them in a sad and ugly world. But the grown will hear in it the warning story meant for them of the wrongs in the world their selfish actions have already forged. Kingsley shows proof of being a man ahead of his time in his sly hints of a politic and humanitarian nature.
It is as engaging for an adult as it is for a child and should be a must read. “But will you believe me?” 😏
The narrator, Simon Vance, nothing more I can state there that hasn’t been said of him by thousands of other posters. He is amazing, well read and well spoken. Seems to me when you hear him that he finds a little piece of him in every story he chooses to take on the reading of.
Have ‘read 100’s of books on audible and enjoyed 99.99% of them but haven’t till now felt compelled to write a review. I hope I convince least one person young or old to read or listen to Water Babies.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- K Walts
- 04-28-22
So many childhood memories
Ahhhhh listening to this bought back so many childhood memories!!! I want to listen to the tv adapted version now.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- ROSALIND BUCK
- 09-24-21
Good story but with a few bits of antique racism
Editing us a bit sloppy but if you can allow yourself to overlook a few instances of casual racism the intentions of the story are good.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rebecca
- 05-21-22
Beautiful reading - loved the accents!
I've always wanted to read/listen to this after being mesmorised as a child by the film version, starring Bernard Cribbins. This is very different from that, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I like its mix of serious/not serious/supernatural/scientific/moral/social protest/satire, and the underlying humour.