Best Selling Books by Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 - 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian and novelist. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men''s college, and forming labour cooperatives that failed but led to the working reforms of the progressive era. He was a friend and correspondent with Charles Darwin. Kingsley was born in Holne, Devon, the elder of two sons of the Reverend Charles Kingsley and his wife Mary Lucas Kingsley. His brother, Henry Kingsley, also became a novelist. He spent his childhood in Clovelly, Devon, where his father was Curate 1826-1832 and Rector 1832-1836, and at Barnack, Northamptonshire and was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Helston Grammar School before studying at King''s College London, and the University of Cambridge. Charles entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1838, and graduated in 1842. He chose to pursue a ministry in the church. From 1844, he was rector of Eversley in Hampshire. In 1859 he was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria. In 1860, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. In 1861 he became a private tutor to the Prince of Wales

Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face details the fictional life of the philosopher Hypatia and tells the story of Philammon, a young monk, who becomes involved in the political and religious issues within the city of Alexandria. This fantastic book is considered to be Kingsley''s greatest novel, widely read in its time and still enjoyed by discerning readers today - a must-have for any collector of Kingsley. Originally published in 1853, we proudly republish this scarce classic with a new introductory biography of the author. Charles Kingsley was a priest of the Church of England, historian, a university professor, novelist, and close friend of Charles Darwin. Other notable works by Kingsley include: The Water-Babies (1863), Hereward the Wake: "Last of the English" (1866) and Westward Ho! (1855).

Excerpt: "My dear children, Some of you have heard already of the old Greeks; and all of you, as you grow up, will hear more and more of them. Those of you who are boys will, perhaps, spend a great deal of time in reading Greek books; and the girls, though they may not learn Greek, will be sure to come across a great many stories taken from Greek history, and to see, I may say every day, things which we should not have had if it had not been for these old Greeks. You can hardly find a well-written book which has not in it Greek names, and words, and proverbs; you cannot walk through a great town without passing Greek buildings; you cannot go into a well-furnished room without seeing Greek statues and ornaments, even Greek patterns of furniture and paper; so strangely have these old Greeks left their mark behind them upon this modern world in which we now live. And as you grow up, and read more and more, you will find that we owe to these old Greeks the beginners of all our mathematics and geometry—that is, the science and knowledge of numbers, and of the shapes of things, and of the forces which make things move and stand at rest; and the beginnings of our geography and astronomy; and of our laws, and freedom, and politics—that is, the science of how to rule a country, and make it peaceful and strong. And we owe to them, too, the beginning of our logic—that is, the study of words and of reasoning; and of our metaphysics—that is, the study of our own thoughts and souls. And last of all, they made their language so beautiful that foreigners used to take to it instead of their own; and at last Greek became the common language of educated people all over the old world, from Persia and Egypt even to Spain and Britain. And therefore it was that the New Testament was written in Greek, that it might be read and understood by all the nations of the Roman empire; so that, next to the Jews, and the Bible which the Jews handed down to us, we owe more to these old Greeks than to any people upon earth."

Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 - 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian and novelist. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men''s college, and forming labour cooperatives that failed but led to the working reforms of the progressive era. He was a friend and correspondent with Charles Darwin.ingsley was born in Holne, Devon, the elder of two sons of the Reverend Charles Kingsley and his wife Mary Lucas Kingsley. His brother, Henry Kingsley, also became a novelist. He spent his childhood in Clovelly, Devon, where his father was Curate 1826-1832 and Rector 1832-1836, and at Barnack, Northamptonshire and was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Helston Grammar School before studying at King''s College London, and the University of Cambridge. Charles entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1838, and graduated in 1842. He chose to pursue a ministry in the church. From 1844, he was rector of Eversley in Hampshire. In 1859 he was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria. In 1860, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge.In 1861 he became a private tutor to the Prince of Wales.In 1869 Kingsley resigned his Cambridge professorship and, from 1870 to 1873, was a canon of Chester Cathedral. While in Chester he founded the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, which played an important part in the establishment of the Grosvenor Museum.In 1872 he accepted the Presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute and became its 19th President. In 1873 he was made a canon of Westminster Abbey.Kingsley died in 1875 and was buried in St Mary''s Churchyard in Eversley. Kingsley sat on the 1866 Edward Eyre Defence Committee along with Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Charles Dickens and Alfred Lord Tennyson, where he supported Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre''s brutal suppression of the Morant Bay Rebellion against the Jamaica Committee. One of his daughters, Mary St Leger Kingsley, became known as a novelist under the pseudonym "Lucas Malet." Kingsley''s life was written by his widow in 1877, entitled Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life. Kingsley also received letters from Thomas Huxley in 1860 and later in 1863, discussing Huxley''s early ideas on agnosticism

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children''s novel by Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-63 as a serial for Macmillan''s Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin''s The Origin of Species. The book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children''s literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in part due to its prejudices (common at the time) against Irish, Jews, Catholics and Americans

Hypatia or New Foes Whith an Old Face: Large Print By Charles Kingsley Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face is an 1853 novel by the English writer Charles Kingsley. It is a fictionalised account of the life of the philosopher Hypatia, and tells the story of a young monk called Philammon who travels to Alexandria, where he becomes mixed up in the political and religious battles of the day. Although intended as Christian apologia, the novel has a deliberate anti-Catholic tone, and it also reflects Kingsley''s other prejudices about race and religion, many of which were typical to the 19th century. For many years the book was considered one of Kingsley''s best novels and was widely read. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

A passage from the book... A picture of life in the fifth century must needs contain much which will be painful to any reader, and which the young and innocent will do well to leave altogether unread. It has to represent a very hideous, though a very great, age; one of those critical and cardinal eras in the history of the human race, in which virtues and vices manifest themselves side by side-even, at times, in the same person-with the most startling openness and power. One who writes of such an era labours under a troublesome disadvantage. He dare not tell how evil people were; he will not be believed if he tells how good they were. In the present case that disadvantage is doubled; for while the sins of the Church, however heinous, were still such as admit of being expressed in words, the sins of the heathen world, against which she fought, were utterly indescribable; and the Christian apologist is thus compelled, for the sake of decency, to state the Church''s case far more weakly than the facts deserve.Not, be it ever remembered, that the slightest suspicion of immorality attaches either to the heroine of this book, or to the leading philosophers of her school, for several centuries. Howsoever base and profligate their disciples, or the Manichees, may have been, the great Neo-Platonists were, as Manes himself was, persons of the most rigid and ascetic virtue.

A passage from the book... These Lectures, as I have said, are altogether crude and fragmentary--how, indeed, could they be otherwise, dealing with so vast a subject,and so long a period of time? They are meant neither as Essays nor asOrations, but simply as a collection of hints to those who may wish towork out the subject for themselves; and, I trust, as giving someglimpses of a central idea, in the light of which the spiritual historyof Alexandria, and perhaps of other countries also, may be seen to havein itself a coherence and organic method.I was of course compelled, by the circumstances under which theseLectures were delivered, to keep clear of all points which are commonlycalled "controversial." I cannot but feel that this was a gain, ratherthan a loss; because it forced me, if I wished to give anyinterpretation at all of Alexandrian thought, any Theodicy at all of herfate, to refer to laws which I cannot but believe to be deeper, wider,more truly eternal than the points which cause most of our moderncontroversies, either theological or political; laws which will, Icannot but believe also, reassert themselves, and have to be reassertedby all wise teachers, very soon indeed, and it may be under most novelembodiments, but without any change in their eternal spirit

A passage from the book... Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.These words often puzzle and pain really good people, because they seem to put the hardest duty first. It seems, at times, so much more easy to love one''s neighbour than to love God. And strange as it may seem, that is partly true. St. John tells us so - ''He that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?'' Therefore many good people, who really do love God, are unhappy at times because they feel that they do not love him enough. They say in their hearts - ''I wish to do right, and I try to do it: but I am afraid I do not do it from love to God.''I think that they are often too hard upon themselves. I believe that they are very often loving God with their whole hearts, when they think that they are not doing so. But still, it is well to be afraid of oneself, and dissatisfied with oneself.I think, too - nay, I am certain - that many good people do not love God as they ought, and as they would wish to do, because they have not been rightly taught who God is, and what He is like. They have not been taught that God is loveable; they have been taught that God feels feelings, and does deeds, which if a man felt, or did, we should call him arbitrary, proud, revengeful, cruel: and yet they are told to love him; and they do not know how to love such a being as that. Nor do I either, my friends.

The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children''s novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan''s Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children''s literature through the 1920s.The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he dies and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddis fly - an insect that sheds its skin - and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly, and to question child labour, among other themes.