Editing Charles Kingsley (section)

==Influences and works==
Kingsley's interest in history is shown in several of his writings, including ''The Heroes'' (1856), a children's book about [[Greek mythology]], and several historical novels, of which the best known are ''[[Hypatia (novel)|Hypatia]]'' (1853), ''[[Hereward the Wake (novel)|Hereward the Wake]]'' (1865) and ''[[Westward Ho! (novel)|Westward Ho!]]'' (1855). From his book ''The Heroes'' the story of ''Perseus, the Gorgon Slayer'' was taken and in 1898 republished as ''[[The Story of Perseus and the Gorgon's Head]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kingsley |first=Charles |title=The story of Perseus and the Gorgon's head |publisher=Review of Reviews Office |year=1898}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/677/677-h/677-h.htm |access-date=2023-08-05 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

[[File:Charles Kingsley - project Gutenberg eText 13103.jpg|thumb|left|Kingsley]]
He was sympathetic to the idea of [[evolution]] and was one of the first to welcome [[Charles Darwin]]'s book ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. He had been sent an advance review copy and in his response of 18 November 1859 (four days before the book went on sale) stated that he had "long since, from watching the crossing of domesticated animals and plants, learnt to disbelieve the dogma of the permanence of species."<ref>{{Harvnb |Darwin |1887 |p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=text&pageseq=303 287].}}</ref> Darwin added an edited version of Kingsley's closing remarks to the next edition of his book, stating, "A celebrated author and divine has written to me that 'he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws.'"<ref>{{Harvnb |Darwin |1860 |p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F376&viewtype=text&pageseq=499 481].}}</ref> When a heated dispute lasting three years developed over [[human evolution]], Kingsley gently satirised the debate, known as the ''[[Great Hippocampus Question]]''.

Kingsley's concern for social reform is illustrated in his classic, ''[[The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby]]'' (1863), a tale about a boy [[chimney sweep]], which retained its popularity well into the 20th century. The story mentions the main protagonists in the scientific debate over human origins, rearranging his earlier satire as the "great hippopotamus test". The book won a [[Lewis Carroll Shelf Award]] in 1963.

Kingsley's chief asset as a novelist lay in his descriptive faculties: the descriptions of South American scenery in ''Westward Ho!'', of the [[Sahara Desert|Egyptian desert]] in ''Hypatia'', and of the [[North Devon]] scenery in ''Two Years Ago''. American scenery is vividly and truthfully described, in part stemming from his observations during a lecture tour of the United States that he undertook in 1874 and reported to his wife, [[Frances Kingsley|Francis Eliza Grenfell Kingsley]]. The letters were later published.<ref>''Charles Kingsley's American Notes : Letters from a Lecture Tour, 1874'', edited by [[Robert Bernard Martin]] in 1958, and published by [[Princeton University Press]])</ref> He also published his work ''At Last'', written after he had visited the tropics. His sympathy with children taught him how to gain their interest. His version of the old Greek stories entitled ''The Heroes'', and ''Water-babies'' and ''Madam How and Lady Why'', in which he deals with popular natural history, take high rank among books for children.<ref name=EB1911/> Kingsley was influenced by [[Frederick Denison Maurice]], and was close to many Victorian thinkers and writers, including the Scottish writer [[George MacDonald]].

Kingsley was highly critical of [[Roman Catholicism]] and his argument in print with [[John Henry Newman]], accusing him of untruthfulness and deceit, prompted the latter to write his ''[[Apologia Pro Vita Sua]]''.<ref name="Donoghue">{{Cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-water-babies-a-fairy-tale-for-a-land-baby-by-charles-kingsley-1.1379367 |title=The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, by Charles Kingsley. The classic children's story is 150 years old |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |date=17 October 2013 |access-date=25 September 2016 |author=Donoghue, Denis |author-link=Denis Donoghue (academic)}}</ref> Kingsley also wrote poetry and political articles, as well as several volumes of sermons.

Kingsley coined the term ''[[pteridomania]]'' (meaning "a craze for ferns") in his 1855 book ''Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore''.<ref name="Boyd1993">{{Cite web |url=http://www.peterboyd.com/pteridomania.htm |first=Peter D. A. |last=Boyd |title= Pteridomania – the Victorian passion for ferns |website=peterboyd.com |date=1993}}</ref>