4 h 36 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 36 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a mermaid comes ashore and refuses to obey the rules of respectable life?
On the Kent shore around Sandgate, holiday life runs on promenades, small talk and appearances. Then the Sea Lady arrives. Frank and self-possessed, she becomes a guest of the Bunting household, whose members must somehow manage a mermaid while keeping their place in polite society.
For Harry Chatteris, her arrival unsettles more than seaside manners. He has ambitions, a settled future and a fiancée, Adeline Glendower, who stands for duty and the sensible life. In The Sea Lady, H. G. Wells turns a comic fairy tale into a question: what does safety ask us to surrender?
What you’ll discover
- An impossible seaside guest Meet a mermaid whose directness leaves her careful hosts fascinated, worried and unsure what to say.
- Respectability under gentle pressure Enjoy the comedy of people trying to explain what refuses to fit their world.
- A future losing certainty Follow Harry as his settled plans begin to feel less secure beside the Sea Lady.
- Desire against duty Explore the pull between personal longing and the promises that family and friends approve.
- Wells in a lighter mood Share an amused, sympathetic narrator's view of English habits, class and carefully maintained appearances.
Who will love it
For readers who love gentle satire, fairy tales told with a straight face, and Wells in a lighter mood, with a love story that sets desire against duty.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A mermaid arrives at an English resort
- Polite society tries to make room for her
- A young man and his careful future
- Desire pulls against duty
- A gentle satire of Edwardian respectability
- A comic fairy tale told with a straight face
Who’s who
- The Sea LadyA mermaid who comes ashore among English holidaymakers, frank and self-possessed, with a clear purpose of her own.
- Harry ChatterisA pleasant young man with ambitions and an arranged future, whose settled plans begin to feel less certain.
- Adeline GlendowerChatteris's fiancée, who stands for duty, promise and the sensible life that family and friends approve.
- The Bunting householdThe hosts at the seaside who must explain and manage their strange guest while keeping up appearances.
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 36 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La Dame de la mer
by H. G. Wells · 1902
A mermaid comes ashore at an English resort, unsettling a young man's plans and polite society's rules.
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In short
Wells was best known then for scientific romances such as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. Here he turns to an older kind of wonder, the mermaid of folk tale, and sets her down in the middle of ordinary English seaside life.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A mermaid arrives at an English resort
The story begins on the south coast of England, in the world of lodging houses, promenades and holiday families. The setting is the Kent shore around Sandgate, a place made for rest and small talk. Into this calm comes a visitor from the sea, a young woman who is not a woman at all in the ordinary sense. She is a mermaid, and she has come on purpose.
Wells does not treat the event with awe. He treats it as a social problem. How do you introduce a sea creature to a respectable household? What do you say to the neighbours? The comedy lies in the way people reach for their usual manners, even when the facts in front of them have no place in those manners.
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What is The Sea Lady about?
It is a comic fantasy in which a mermaid comes ashore at an English seaside resort and tries to live among respectable people. Her arrival disturbs a young man's settled plans and tests the manners of those around her.
When was The Sea Lady written?
H. G. Wells published it in 1902. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, and it belongs to the years when he moved between scientific romances and comic novels of English life.
Is The Sea Lady like The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds?
Not much. It is a light, ironic fantasy about love and social manners, not a work of science and catastrophe. Its interest in how society meets the strange does link it to his other books.
The author
H. G. Wells
1866–1946 · English science fiction novelist
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer born in Bromley, Kent. He wrote novels, short stories and nonfiction. His novels included The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He died in London.
More by H. G. Wells
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