The Sea Lady is a novel written by H. G. Wells in 1901. A lesser known work that is about Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a mermaid.
Our story is narrated by someone who was not directly involved in the story but his cousin Melville got caught up in it. So now it is up to him to tell the story of the Sea Lady as best he can. A mermaid comes to shore and takes up with the Bunting family. The sea lady wishes to become a human and join our society. Or at least that what she claimed at first. The Sea Lady happens to have eyes on a Mr. Chatteris who happens to be engaged to a woman staying with the Bunting family. The Sea Lady tries her best to get her way and reminds us all, "there are better dreams".
Tropes include in this story:
- Accidental Misnaming: Lady Mallow tends to get Melville's name as "Milvain" several times during their conversation in the end he just stops trying to correct it.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Sea Lady wins by seducing Chatteris and taking him off into the sea.
- Betty and Veronica: The Sea Lady is Veronica, Adeline Glendower is Betty, and Harry Chatteris is Archie.
- Cassandra Truth: The daring young reporter does his homework and proves that the Sea Lady is really a mermaid but thanks to quick thinking by Melville the publishers all treat go on the offensive on him for actually doing his job correctly.
- Love at First Sight: The Sea Lady wanted Harry Chatteris ever since she first saw him far away from England.
- Mermaid Problem: Handwaved by the Sea Lady herself as Melville questions her on how exactly it would ever work between her and Chatteris. The Sea Lady doesn't seem to care. Melville takes this to mean going with her would simply mean death one way or another.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Our mermaid is one who believes she doesn't have a soul but in questioning Melville she gets him to not be able to describe what a soul is. The Sea Lady is also immortal as expected all mermaids are given she doesn't understand Adeline's comment about "mer-child"s. She had zero problem living outside the water for an extended period of time. Also they read human literature that gets tossed into the sea.
- Punny Name: The Sea Lady takes the alias "Miss Doris Thalassia Waters".
- Rescue Reversal: Mr. Randolph Bunting and his son Fred rush out with the ladder to rescue the Sea Lady who they don't know is a mermaid. However it soon becomes apparent Mr. Bunting doesn't really understand how to swim and Fred and the Sea Lady end up having to rescue him.
- Unreliable Narrator:
- On a first level our unknown narrator is just trying to piece together the story as best he can. In some cases he outright admits he doesn't have the fully story.
- On a second level his cousin Melville is said to be terrible at dates and as such he isn't sure if the timing of all the events was accurate either.
- Lastly there's the Sea Lady herself on whether she was telling the truth about mermaid life. Our narrator admits he has no way of knowing if what she said was true and is only relating what she claimed.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The Sea Lady pretends to be drowning in order to be brought to land and get invited into the Bunting house.
