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The Sea Lady: A Tissue of Moonshine

H.G. Wells

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    It has been quite a while since I've read a really silly H.G. Wells. He could be very profound. Or political, especially concerning war and the future of the human race. He was best-known as a writer of science-fiction, with masterworks such as The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The Time Machine. But he could also be really goofy, as in The Invisible Man and The Food of the Gods: and How it Came to Earth. Some critics see these works as more serious than I do, and granted, they do have a deeper meaning. But when Wells writes in local British dialect, he's usually being silly. This one definitely falls into that category. And I'm not sure what to make of it, although, again, Wikipedia sees more seriousness here than I do. You can read all my H.G. Wells reviews on his Index Page, and I've read quite a few of his works, but nowhere near all, because he was very prolific. This one was a rather early novel, written in 1902. My copy came from the University of Adelaide, but they shut down their digital library during those terrible wildfires. Fortunately Project Gutenberg also has it available, and theirs has illustrations. And here is the Wikipedia page for Wells' Bibliography.
    As I was reading I took lots of notes and began to wonder why. I was expecting some sort of revelation, perhaps. A surprise that made it all make sense. Something deeper? It didn't happen, even at the very end, where the humor subsided and I could tell there was a bit of a message. I think. Anyways, I'll just tell you the story, add a few of my own thoughts, and be done with it. Incidentally, I really am a great fan of H.G. Wells, but he must have been a very strange man.
    We meet the Buntings in a summer house at Sandgate, a village in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. They have two daughters and a son, and with them are two wealthy young ladies who are half-sisters. Their parents are deceased and they live with the Buntings. The elder, Adeline, age twenty-seven, who is also the much wealthier, is engaged to Mr. Harry Chatteris, a budding politician, and she is into social activism and the whole political scene, so it would seem they are well-matched. The younger Glendower, Mabel, age seventeen, is engaged to Fred Bunting. Mrs. Bunting is overbearing, and Mr. Bunting is a bit of a woosie.
    The story is told by an unnamed narrator, whose cousin, Mr. Melville, a friend of the Buntings and Miss Glendowers, becomes unwittingly involved in the upcoming situation. It begins when the family goes to the beach to "bathe" which is really to swim, fully dressed, of course, and generally "bathing" is not done with mixed sexes at that time period, but, nonetheless, there they all are.

Mrs. Bunting went first, looking as it were for Peeping Tom with her glasses, and Miss Glendower, who never bathed because it made her feel undignified, went with her—wearing one of those simple, costly "art" morning costumes Socialists affect. Behind this protecting van came, one by one, the three girls, in their beautiful Parisian bathing dresses and headdresses—though these were of course completely muffled up in huge hooded gowns of towelling—and wearing of course stockings and shoes—they bathed in stockings and shoes. Then came Mrs. Bunting's maid and the second housemaid and the maid the Glendower girls had brought, carrying towels, and then at a little interval the two men carrying ropes and things. (Mrs. Bunting always put a rope around each of her daughters before ever they put a foot in the water and held it until they were safely out again. But Mabel Glendower would not have a rope.)

    After the ladies were well into the water, and Mrs. Bunting was sure there were no jellyfish, their outer wraps came off. That's when they see an unfamiliar woman swimming nearby. She is wearing a red dress and a bathing cap, and the young ladies stare, when all of a sudden, she goes under. Mr. Bunting, who really cannot swim, and Fred, grab the neighbor's ladder, and in they go to rescue the drowning lady. As Mr. Bunting sputters and swallows lots of water, they manage to haul her in—a very beautiful lady in fact, who clings to Fred with her lips against his cheek and whispers that she had a cramp, although she is not exhausted or behaving like someone who nearly drowned. She requests they carry her into the house, and they ask, "which house," thinking she is one of the neighbors. But she requests their house.
    It isn't hard for the reader to see that she was faking "cramps," (which she later admits), and that she has some personal agenda to get into the Bunting's household. They are all so caught up in her, they fail to even notice that she has a tail—like a mackerel—as Mrs. Bunting later describes it. But no matter, she is welcomed to stay, and her "limb" is kept covered, while she is explained to be a cripple to those outside the immediate family and Mr. Melville. She soon begins to leak little hints as to her motives for coming out (of the water, that is). She wants to experience life as a human. She wants a soul, which she does not have. She is an immortal.
    But Adeline doesn't buy it, and Mrs. Bunting doesn't want to hear her doubts. But she is correct, because what the Sea Lady, who is now known as Miss Doris Thalassia Waters, really wants is Mr. Harry Chatteris, with whom she became infatuated years ago when he was in the South Seas. And since she is a supernatural being, she also has powers over people. She claims to want to live as a human, yet she entices Melville with the idea that their lives are not real, telling them "there are better dreams." OK, so that part, I do get. However, her quest for Chatteris, if successful, would end in his death. She doesn't want to live up here with him, she wants to take him underwater with her. Little things like that, or the fact that he is engaged to Adeline are irrelevant to her. She is not human. Gosh, it seems like I write those words a lot lately.
    Anyways, that's all I'll share about the story. Here's some background, according to the Wikipedia page linked above.

The inspiration for the novel was Wells's glimpse of May Nisbet, the daughter of the Times drama critic, in a bathing suit, when she came to visit at Sandgate, Wells having agreed to pay her school fees after her father's death.

    Below is the cover for the first publication, which I am thinking perhaps used Miss Nisbet's likeness. The article also mentions: "Structurally it is the most complex thing Wells ever wrote, certainly the only novel Wells ever wrote to directly confirm our understanding that he did, indeed, read Henry James." The dialogue is very James-like, and I thought that as I read, so I was not surprised to read this statement. The article, in particular, mentions the James novel, The Sacred Fount.
    I am not familiar with that one, but it sounds interesting, and I found it at Project Gutenberg, so I decided to use it for my 2021 contribution to my Henry James Index Page.
    That article also mentioned other mermaid stories based on myth or folklore, containing a similar theme of a mermaid falling in love with a human, then attempting to be one. That would include, The Little Mermaid and Undine. They, however, were more selfless, and wished to become human to be with the one they loved. In the case of the Sea Lady, her motives are totally selfish, and not based on love but on reeling in the catch.
    My perception of the work is that Miss Waters is a phony and a flirt, and does prove to be untrustworthy. In an intimate conversation with Mr. Melville:

She came warmly close to him. She spoke in gently confidential undertone, as one who imparts a secret that is not to be too lightly given. "Because," she said, "there are better dreams."

Mrs. Bunting finally "gets it," and throws her out, but she's already done too much mischief. What is the moral of the story? What is the point? What do thecharacters learn and are they better for it? I dunno. So, I guess in that respect, it turned out to be a silly novel that gave me little satisfaction. Perhaps I will read it again sometime and think differently.
Below is the cover for the first publication of the novel in Pearson's Magazine," serialized from July-December 1901.

Pearson's Magazine