The Mermaid Reader: And of Mermen, Nixies, Water Nymphs, Sea Sirens, Sea Serpents, Sprites and Kindred Creatures of the Deep

by Helen O'Clery (Editor), Enrico Arno (Illustrator)

194 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW:

Got this anthology for my job that I don't have anymore, so here it sits on the shelf until I get around to it.

Had reason (not worth going into) to read John Masefield's "The Plunderer" - strange "story" about a character drawn along underwater by some mermaids, who take him upriver to the sight of where some of their treasure (from a sunken ship) was stolen and brought, and we get a little history lesson about the thief before a strange, recursive ending. I didn't understand it. Or, more precisely, I understood the vague plot events, but they were so lacking in context (the story just seems to start with no set-up, and not in a usual way, and the ending kind of folds back onto itself while referencing characters we haven't met) that I felt it very likely that this was an excerpt from some longer piece. Odd.

[Jo-jean Keller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading some of the old tales of sea creatures that people believed in for many years!

[Anna Jayne Wilds-Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite childhood book. It started me down a lifelong love of reading.