Abstract
The idea of The Sea Lady came to Wells one day in 1900 while lying on the beach at Sandgate. Never well received by the critics or the reading public (the first edition was not exhausted until many years after its publication in book form in 1902), this rather slight tale appears at first sight to be merely a variation on the theme of The Wonderful Visit, with a mermaid as the critical visitant in place of an angel. Its importance lies not so much in the quality of its writing, which is admittedly undistinguished, but rather in its symbolic undertones; for The Sea Lady is in essence a fantasia on a theme which was to dominate Wells’s fiction for several decades—‘the harsh incompatibility of wide public interests with the high, swift rush of imaginative passion’.15
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsCopyright information
© 1979 J. R. Hammond
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hammond, J.R. (1979). The Sea Lady. In: An H. G. Wells Companion. Literary Companions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04146-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04146-6_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04148-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04146-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)