What do you think?
Rate this book
Wet Magic
When four siblings journey to the seashore for a holiday, one of them unwittingly summons the sister of a mermaid who is captured by a circus, and the children set out to save the imprisoned being. After a daring midnight rescue, the children's reward is an incredible journey beneath the waves and into the hidden kingdom of the mermaids. But they soon find themselves in a race against time as they struggle to prevent a war and save their new underwater companions! Here is a triumphant tale by one of the finest storytellers to ever write for children, and a pioneer of fantasy literature for this age group.
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1913
16 people are currently reading
615 people want to read
About the author
E. Nesbit
1,030 books996 followers
Edith Nesbit
(married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.
Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.
At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.
Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).
In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.
Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.
At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.
Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).
In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
April 20, 2010
I must have read this book when I was about 6... E. Nesbit was the first "real" author I discovered. I think it was the first time I had ever come across a metaphysical problem in a work of literature. The children have been captured by the cruel Sea-People, and the Queen offers them a deal. Anyone who wants can take a little pill, and they will immediately forget who they are, and that they were ever the Sea-People's enemies. They will be welcome as free citizens. But if they don't take the pill, they will be imprisoned for the rest of their lives.
All but one of the children refuse the pills. But the youngest agrees. And indeed, she immediately forgets who she is, and curls up happily in the Queen's lap, looking at her brothers and sisters as though they were complete strangers. Even at age 6, I knew she'd made the wrong choice, and was horrified. Now, I wonder why exactly I was so sure about it. Where had I learned that from?
Re-reading it a couple of years ago, I was amazed at how much classical literature an average middle-class Edwardian child was apparently familiar with. The children summon the mermaid by reciting the following rather fine passage from Milton's "Comus":
All but one of the children refuse the pills. But the youngest agrees. And indeed, she immediately forgets who she is, and curls up happily in the Queen's lap, looking at her brothers and sisters as though they were complete strangers. Even at age 6, I knew she'd made the wrong choice, and was horrified. Now, I wonder why exactly I was so sure about it. Where had I learned that from?
Re-reading it a couple of years ago, I was amazed at how much classical literature an average middle-class Edwardian child was apparently familiar with. The children summon the mermaid by reciting the following rather fine passage from Milton's "Comus":
Sabrina fairThe fact that they know it by heart is presented as normal and unremarkable. Times have changed.
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair...
March 7, 2017
Wet Magic is a Nesbit book which I didn't read as a child. They are rather twee, but I do (still) enjoy her work. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Wet Magic follows a similar pattern to many of her other books, in that a group of rather well-to-do siblings discover something otherworldly or unusual - in this case, a mermaid - and are put in a situation of mild peril before the happy-for-all outcome, in which said children put things right with their unwavering courage and determination. I definitely preferred the first half of the book to the second, and probably would have enjoyed it more had I still been a small person.
August 7, 2012
Wet Magic* follows the general pattern of Nesbit books: a family of very English children, two boys and two girls in this case, finds themselves embroiled in a magical adventure. In this case, they rescue a mermaid from a circus that had captured her. She takes them back to her own country, and hijinks ensue.
It's pretty typical Nesbit: a simple, fun adventure for kids. It doesn't stand out among the rest of her books in either a good or a bad way; I'd recommend it for someone who's already read about the Bastables and the Psammead and is looking for more.
*Worst title ever. My husband, looking over my shoulder, asked uneasily, "'Wet Magic'? Is that...fanfiction?" "No, it's E. Nesbit," I told him. "Oh," he said, still giving me an odd look. "I thought maybe it was dirty Harry Potter fanfiction or something." As to why my husband thinks I would be reading erotic Harry Potter fanfic, I can only surmise that I may have displayed too much familiarity with fanfic lingo when I explained the origin of 50 Shades...
It's pretty typical Nesbit: a simple, fun adventure for kids. It doesn't stand out among the rest of her books in either a good or a bad way; I'd recommend it for someone who's already read about the Bastables and the Psammead and is looking for more.
*Worst title ever. My husband, looking over my shoulder, asked uneasily, "'Wet Magic'? Is that...fanfiction?" "No, it's E. Nesbit," I told him. "Oh," he said, still giving me an odd look. "I thought maybe it was dirty Harry Potter fanfiction or something." As to why my husband thinks I would be reading erotic Harry Potter fanfic, I can only surmise that I may have displayed too much familiarity with fanfic lingo when I explained the origin of 50 Shades...
May 9, 2022
Kids come across a mermaid. The mermaid gets captured by a circus. The kids rescue her and she takes the children to her magical underwater kingdom. Overall, an easy, sweet and imaginative but a bit old fashioned and not particularly exciting children’s adventure story.
June 19, 2018
Relatively weak Nesbit offering. A mermaid is rescued, and takes a group of children on an underwater adventure.
It felt... unreal? This is an odd criticism to make of one of the most fantastical authors of children's fantasy, but the book just didn't seem to ring true.
2.5/5, rounded up. May have more thoughts later.
It felt... unreal? This is an odd criticism to make of one of the most fantastical authors of children's fantasy, but the book just didn't seem to ring true.
2.5/5, rounded up. May have more thoughts later.
September 8, 2022
Cute book that has four siblings rescuing a circus boy and a kidnapped mermaid. In the second half of the book, they go to the mermaids' kingdom and fight a war. Reminiscent of L. Frank Baum.
March 6, 2017
I think this is the weakest of the Nesbit books that I've read. I've given it three stars, but I probably would have given two stars to a different author.
Of course, the fault may not be with Nesbit but with me. This is the second undersea book I have given a low rating. Perhaps I just don't like that setting.
Of course, the fault may not be with Nesbit but with me. This is the second undersea book I have given a low rating. Perhaps I just don't like that setting.
May 25, 2018
At about 70% through (as labeled by Kindle) I was sure I was going to be disappointed with a Nesbit for the first time ever. Soon after, I changed my mind. I disagree with the author's ideas on what should be forgotten except by the heart--whatever THAT means!--but this one's as ripping good a yarn as any of those I fondly remember.
I believe I'll have to go back to Gutenberg and read the others I've missed!
I believe I'll have to go back to Gutenberg and read the others I've missed!
October 10, 2016
Well...Ms. Nesbit hits it out of the park again for me with this one, with an especially wonderful thrill at her literary references. It was rather fun to pick up a sense of her political leanings with those literary characters that she chose to identify as evil. I would dearly love to see a battle fought with Boadicea, Jeanne, and Torfrida leading a group of Amazons against the "bad guys" in literature. This was so much fun! Oh, and there are a family of delightfully real children and mermaids involved as well!
The quotes I simply must have recorded for further reference:
The parents of Mavis, Francis, Kathleen and Bernard were extremely sensible people. If they had not been, this story could never have happened. They were as jolly as any father and mother you ever met, but they were not always fussing and worrying about their children, and they understood perfectly well that children do not care to be absolutely always under the parental eye. So that, while there were plenty of good times in which the whole family took part, there were also times when Father and Mother went off together and enjoyed themselves in their own grown-up way, while the children enjoyed themselves in theirs.
I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they do not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.
"That's just what I'm saying, isn't it? We've always felt there was magic right enough, haven't we? Well, now we've come across it, don't let's be silly and pretend. Let's believe in it as hard as ever we can. Mavis - shall we, eh? Believing in things makes them stronger. Aunt Dorothea said that too - you remember."
Don't you sometimes wonder who is to blame for all the uglification of places that might be so pretty, and wish you could have a word with them and ask them not to? Perhaps when these people were little nobody told them how wrong it is to throw orange peel about, and the bits of paper off chocolate, and the paper bag which once concealed your bun. And it is a dreadful fact that the children who throw these things about are little uglifiers, and they grow up to be perfect monsters of uglification.
Any really great adventure like the rescuing of a Mermaid does always look so very much more serious when you carry it out, at night, than it did when you were planning it in the daytime. Also, though they knew they were not doing anything wrong, they had an uncomfortable feeling that Mother and Daddy might not agree with them on that point. And of course they could not ask leave to go and rescue a Mermaid, with a chariot, at dead of night. It is not the sort of thing you can ask leave to do, somehow. And the more you explained your reasons the less grown-up people would think you fit to conduct such an expedition.
"I am so sorry I was so ungrateful the other night. I'll tell you how it was. It's in your air. You see, coming out of the water we're very susceptible to aerial influences - and that sort of ungratefulness and snobbishness is most frightfully infectious, and your air's absolutely crammed with the germs of it. That's why I was so horrid. And I was so selfish, too - oh, horrid. But it's all washed off now, in the nice clean sea, and I'm as sorry as if it had been my fault, which it really and truly wasn't."
"This is the Cave of Learning, you know, very dark at the beginning and getting lighter and lighter as you get nearer to the golden door. All these rocks are made of books really, and they exude learning from every crack. We cover them up with anemones and seaweed and pretty things as well as we can, but the learning will leak out. Let us go through the gate or you'll all be talking Sanskrit before we know where we are."
"We have to be careful, you know," she said, "because of the people in the books. They are always trying to get out of the books that the cave is made of; and some of them are very undesirable characters. There's a Mrs. Fairchild - we've had a great deal of trouble with her, and a person called Mrs. Markham who makes everybody miserable, and a lot of people who think they are being funny when they aren't - dreadful."
Boadicea carried Mrs. Markham and her brown silk under one bare, braceleted arm as though she had been a naughty child. Joan of Arc made herself responsible for Aunt Fortune, and the Queen of the Amazons made nothing of picking up Mrs. Murdstone, beads and all, and carrying her in her arms like a baby. Torfrida's was the hardest task. She had, from the beginning, singled out Alftruda, her old and bitter enemy, and the fight between them was a fierce one, though it was but a battle of looks. Yet before long the fire in Torfrida's great dark eyes seemed to scorch her adversary, she shrank before it, and shrank and shrank till at last she turned and crept back to her book and went in of her own accord, and Torrid shut the door.
The quotes I simply must have recorded for further reference:
The parents of Mavis, Francis, Kathleen and Bernard were extremely sensible people. If they had not been, this story could never have happened. They were as jolly as any father and mother you ever met, but they were not always fussing and worrying about their children, and they understood perfectly well that children do not care to be absolutely always under the parental eye. So that, while there were plenty of good times in which the whole family took part, there were also times when Father and Mother went off together and enjoyed themselves in their own grown-up way, while the children enjoyed themselves in theirs.
I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they do not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.
"That's just what I'm saying, isn't it? We've always felt there was magic right enough, haven't we? Well, now we've come across it, don't let's be silly and pretend. Let's believe in it as hard as ever we can. Mavis - shall we, eh? Believing in things makes them stronger. Aunt Dorothea said that too - you remember."
Don't you sometimes wonder who is to blame for all the uglification of places that might be so pretty, and wish you could have a word with them and ask them not to? Perhaps when these people were little nobody told them how wrong it is to throw orange peel about, and the bits of paper off chocolate, and the paper bag which once concealed your bun. And it is a dreadful fact that the children who throw these things about are little uglifiers, and they grow up to be perfect monsters of uglification.
Any really great adventure like the rescuing of a Mermaid does always look so very much more serious when you carry it out, at night, than it did when you were planning it in the daytime. Also, though they knew they were not doing anything wrong, they had an uncomfortable feeling that Mother and Daddy might not agree with them on that point. And of course they could not ask leave to go and rescue a Mermaid, with a chariot, at dead of night. It is not the sort of thing you can ask leave to do, somehow. And the more you explained your reasons the less grown-up people would think you fit to conduct such an expedition.
"I am so sorry I was so ungrateful the other night. I'll tell you how it was. It's in your air. You see, coming out of the water we're very susceptible to aerial influences - and that sort of ungratefulness and snobbishness is most frightfully infectious, and your air's absolutely crammed with the germs of it. That's why I was so horrid. And I was so selfish, too - oh, horrid. But it's all washed off now, in the nice clean sea, and I'm as sorry as if it had been my fault, which it really and truly wasn't."
"This is the Cave of Learning, you know, very dark at the beginning and getting lighter and lighter as you get nearer to the golden door. All these rocks are made of books really, and they exude learning from every crack. We cover them up with anemones and seaweed and pretty things as well as we can, but the learning will leak out. Let us go through the gate or you'll all be talking Sanskrit before we know where we are."
"We have to be careful, you know," she said, "because of the people in the books. They are always trying to get out of the books that the cave is made of; and some of them are very undesirable characters. There's a Mrs. Fairchild - we've had a great deal of trouble with her, and a person called Mrs. Markham who makes everybody miserable, and a lot of people who think they are being funny when they aren't - dreadful."
Boadicea carried Mrs. Markham and her brown silk under one bare, braceleted arm as though she had been a naughty child. Joan of Arc made herself responsible for Aunt Fortune, and the Queen of the Amazons made nothing of picking up Mrs. Murdstone, beads and all, and carrying her in her arms like a baby. Torfrida's was the hardest task. She had, from the beginning, singled out Alftruda, her old and bitter enemy, and the fight between them was a fierce one, though it was but a battle of looks. Yet before long the fire in Torfrida's great dark eyes seemed to scorch her adversary, she shrank before it, and shrank and shrank till at last she turned and crept back to her book and went in of her own accord, and Torrid shut the door.
November 20, 2015
Four young siblings on a seaside holiday rescue a captive mermaid and get caught up in a war in her underwater domain. Told in E. Nesbit's delightfully conversational style, this is a fantasy to appeal to children of all ages.
Nesbit's magical adventures were the early 20th century's answer to the Harry Potter series, and I highly recommend her books to anyone who enjoys J.K. Rowling, Daniel Pinkwater or Edward Eager. Even Lemony Snicket fans may find Nesbit to their liking, though she's not nearly so depressing.
Nesbit's magical adventures were the early 20th century's answer to the Harry Potter series, and I highly recommend her books to anyone who enjoys J.K. Rowling, Daniel Pinkwater or Edward Eager. Even Lemony Snicket fans may find Nesbit to their liking, though she's not nearly so depressing.
March 26, 2011
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/...
-
Four nice British children have a magical adventure by and in the ocean. Published in 1913 but timeless.
-
Four nice British children have a magical adventure by and in the ocean. Published in 1913 but timeless.
December 8, 2011
Not one of her best but there's something about Nesbit that makes her worth reading no matter what.
April 30, 2014
Charming if fluffy story about children, a mermaid, and the sea kingdom. An easier read than, say, Four Children and It or The Magic City.
September 2, 2017
One of my least favorite Nesbits. It's more dated and has less substance.
April 12, 2021
Instead of being delightfully odd, it was just odd. I was never captured and the title is *so* unfortunate. Somehow, it either didn't age well or wasn't her strongest all along.
January 14, 2025
I don't think that "Nesbitesque" or "Nesbittean" is an actual adjective, but one of them should be, given the range of distinctive markers Nesbit has in her work. This book, about the typical set of siblings having magical adventures, this time with mer-people, is "Nesbitesque." That is, it is rife with recognizeable Nesbittean qualities without quite feeling like the real thing. It is still enjoyable and has both the wit and the charm one expects. It is, for instance, amusingly wry about the nature of the world of the mer-folk and whether the water is actually water-water or something else, mainly as a strategy for avoiding worrying too much about consistency in the underwater narrative. The mer-princess, when we first meet her, is also an amusing contrast to expectation. There are also some ... darker isn't really the right word, but somewhat more meaty hints at more than just whimsy (e.g. Reuben's life in the circus, or Kathleen's [Kathay's, in typical Nesbittec fashion] choice of oblivion over traumatic memory. Nevertheless, whimsy, perhaps a bit too much whimsy, predominates, and the plot is rather predictable (who Reuben's lost parents will turn out to be is as difficult to parse as is where the missing King of the merfolk has gone). There is also one bit that feels rather like a loose end: early on, a woman turns up to try to share the kids' train compartment, only to be chased off by their bitchy (of course) aunt. This character seems more significant than her brief appearance would warrant, but she does not reappear. I find myself wondering whether this is Nesbit inserting herself, as a bit of an Easter egg (a quick--very quick--search online could not confirm); otherwise, this feels like a loose end. Certainly worthwhile, but it's Nesbit's final fantasy novel, and one rather senses why, as it does feel a bit tired.
February 27, 2023
The first children's book by E Nesbit that I haven't absolutely adored. Oh well, no one can hit a home run every time. There were still funny bits and imaginative parts but on the whole, it felt like she was phoning it in.
While I do love beach vacations, I've never been a big fan of sealife or mermaids. I found the magical underwater setting stressful and so did the characters at first. Lots of talk about drowning unless they had magic seaweed around their necks. I find the bottom of the ocean to be a creepy and foreboding place and didn't enjoy the parts of the story set in the deep water, underneath the mermaid world.
Most of the book deals with war and battles. It really goes on and on and on. This was written right before WWI and I kept thinking that it was children's books like this one that helped propagate the belief in honorable and thrilling war battles.
Even the title of the book I find unappealing. No need to read this unless you are like me and on a quest to read all of her children's books.
While I do love beach vacations, I've never been a big fan of sealife or mermaids. I found the magical underwater setting stressful and so did the characters at first. Lots of talk about drowning unless they had magic seaweed around their necks. I find the bottom of the ocean to be a creepy and foreboding place and didn't enjoy the parts of the story set in the deep water, underneath the mermaid world.
Most of the book deals with war and battles. It really goes on and on and on. This was written right before WWI and I kept thinking that it was children's books like this one that helped propagate the belief in honorable and thrilling war battles.
Even the title of the book I find unappealing. No need to read this unless you are like me and on a quest to read all of her children's books.
February 16, 2021
A family of brothers and sisters and the urchin they befriend encounter a mermaid who brings them to a magical underwater kingdom. My favorite part was the first half, set in our regular world. I noticed a bunch of reviewers on Goodreads saying the same. Considering that E. Nesbit was a radical Marxist, I was surprised by her obsession with royalty and how much better they are than anyone else. There was a part where the children had to fight storybook legends who were on the side of evil. The storybook legends had no power if the children didn’t know them, so I would have been super-helpful in this fight because I’d never heard of any of them. All the storybook legends were male except for a generic horde of Amazons. Trite racist trope: boy stolen by gypsies. Otherwise charming.
July 22, 2018
I'm glad I didn't read this in my youth because I would have been enraged at the lack of mermaids in this mermaid book. The Mer-kingdom exists in an air bubble and they take off their tails and use two legs. 13 year old me would have rage quit this book. Apart from that I didn't like the gender roles that were reinforced in this classic, expected but not appreciated. I also didn't like how you have to be beautiful to be loved and how noble blood automatically made you superior of mind and made people treat you with common courtesy while they were mean and dismissive to non-nobles. Definitely not my favorite children's book and not recommended as a mermaid book.
February 14, 2018
Not one of Nesbit's best. She shines when depicting believable children in the real world, one into which magic intrudes. The fun comes in seeing how the children cope with the many disruptions it causes. But in Wet Magic, much of the story takes place in a magical undersea kingdom, and it is only mildly entertaining.
March 10, 2018
Well, I was both disappointed and delighted by this book. I was hoping the title was alluding to something a bit more...amusingly adult. However, instead I discovered this delightful children's tale. Some of the wording caused me to stumble (it was a bit dated), but not enough that I would hesitate to give this to a kiddo to read. The story itself is entertaining and timeless.
October 8, 2021
A bit messy and tedious, by far the E. Nesbit book I had the most hope for and the one that's disappointed me the most. There are fun, interesting elements, and I did find the children likeable (though as unrelatable as all of her child characters) but in its entirety, this was an underwhelming read.
June 25, 2025
I didn’t care that much for this book. Trying to analyze why, it seems that there are just too many detailed descriptions of the underwater world. It drags on and on. Maybe children from that time would’ve found them intriguing and exciting, but I just found them unnecessarily detailed. The plot was generally fun.
October 5, 2019
It was okay. I probably would have thought more highly of it if I hadn't read many of her other works already which were better. I always enjoy her style and characters. The plot in this one was a bit thin, but still a fun read.
June 26, 2023
Someone suggested that this was a long-lost book I'd heard read aloud in grade school. It wasn't, alas. It's pretty minor Nesbit, though it did have some amusing bits, such as the children being told to hold onto a porpoise to avoid falling to a weapon that would make them sleep.
November 17, 2025
Super fun British story about four kids who find a mermaid on their summer vacations. After hearing about E. Nesbit’s stories for my whole life, it was neat to finally experience one. Imaginative and satisfying.
January 30, 2020
Not nearly as good as I remember her other books being
August 18, 2021
this was not read as thesis "research" but I'm tagging it there anyway because underwater society
December 31, 2021
Учитывая, что книга издана впервые в 1913м году - это пятёрка.
May 19, 2022
I didn't really enjoy the style of writing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews