Mermaids

by Beatrice Phillpotts

Fiction

Genres: Mermaids, Mythology, Art

Paperback

First published August 14, 1980

Reviews

[Ash Ravenclaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful art, well written, and fascinating. Was one of those Weird Childhood Books that I dunno where it came from or why my parents decided to give it to children but I read it about 200 times and can pick out most of the paintings from memory. Love the pictures, love the writing, overall Highly Recommend.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is super interesting. Has so much cool information about mermaids, sirens, and mermen. I didn't know the story about Alexander the Great and his men and how they ended up capturing two 'mermaids' that had super long hair, white skin, and were taller than man. Since the 'mermaids' need water to survive it was said they died shortly after. BUT WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THEIR BODIES?! Did they put them back in the water or eat them?? Alas, we will never know. The book also showed a woodcut image from the Nuremberg Bible on how Noah, being on his ship, saw mermaids passing by which I found to be very fascinating (pg. 27). It also talked about how sirens were seen as being half human women to the waist but then had falcon feet with a fish tail. The book showed an image of a Attic vase from the 5th century depicting Odysseus and the Sirens as half bird with a human head (pg.34).

Overall the book is super interesting and I enjoyed reading it. However, I borrowed this book from the library and it was missing 4 pages -_- (missing pages 63/64, 69/70, 73/74, and 93/940) so I missed some crucial information from those pages and the pages after the missing pages were a bit confusing since I had no idea what they were talking about. And it's the only book in the Swan system too! Am sad those pages were missing.

[Sirenita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good mermaid novel with some errors that detracted in its magical influence.

See more on Sirenita's Grotto Mermaid Reviews!

[Hitzuji · Rating 4 out of 5]

En cuanto a información es muy básico pero vale la pena por las obras de arte que incluye y porque la investigación está bien hecha.

[Miz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures, very informative - history and literature references both studied - but there's an underlying sense of humour which makes the book great. Phillpotts doesn't take herself or her subject too seriously, as you can see from the author picture at the back of the book :)