The Merman and the Figure-Head

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guernsey, Clara F. (Clara Florida), 1836-1893.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"The Merman and the Figure-Head" by Clara F. Guernsey is a fictional narrative likely written in the late 19th century. The story intertwines myth and reality, exploring themes of love and identity through the experiences of a young merman who becomes enchanted by a wooden figure-head of a sea-nymph on a ship, which he believes to be a divine being. The tale blends adventure and romance, with a focus on the merman's internal struggles as he navigates his feelings for this inanimate representation of idealized beauty. At the start of the story, we meet Master Isaac Torrey, a merchant from Salem, who decides to name his new ship "The Sea-nymph." As he visits Job Chippit, the wood-carver, to discuss the ship's elaborate figure-head, their humorous exchange delves into the nature of sea-nymphs and their place in myth. Meanwhile, in the sea kingdom, a handsome merman becomes enamored with the figure-head after it is complete, mistaking it for a living goddess. This infatuation leads him on a tumultuous journey, reflecting his struggles between the allure of the wood-carved nymph and the reality of love among the merfolk-all underlined by comedic elements typical of Guernsey's style. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Credits:

Produced by David Edwards, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.)

Notes:

Reading ease score: 81.1 (6th grade). Easy to read.

The first part of this combined volume is available as #53899.

Release date is 2017-01-06