Overview

People have been fascinated by merpeople since ancient times. From the sirens of Homer's Odyssey to Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid to the 1984 film Splash, myths, stories and legends of half-human half-fish creatures abound. In modern times mermaiding has gained popularity amongst cosplayers. In Merpeople: A Human History, Vaughn Scribner traces the long history of mermaids and mermen, taking in a wide variety of sources and 117 striking images. From film to philosophy, church halls to coffee houses, ancient myth to modern science, Scribner shows that mermaids and tritons are and always have been everywhere. 'Scribner's book is compact, richly referenced, attractively produced, and wonderfully illustrated with more than a hundred plates, many unfamiliar (to me) and in full color. A professor at the University of Central Arkansas, he is chiefly curious about shifts in intellectual inquiry as he chronicles beliefs about mermaids, including reports of sightings, exhibitions of discovered specimens, scientists' views, and popular cultural artifacts from films to dolls...He concludes with accounts of films, advertisements, pageants, and theme parks, demonstrating growing rather than fading interest with mermaids in the present day. Yet in its revelations of the appetite for delusion among so many, even as they pursued greater understanding, it's a tale that is especially disturbing at this time of deliberate misinformation.' - Marina Warner / New York Review of Books 'Whether you fancy a quick dip or a marathon swim, this is a delightful book to splash around in, a gloriously illustrated and meticulously researched study of our closest aquatic relatives.' - Patricia Fara / Literary Review

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9781789143140

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Reviews

Scribner's thorough, engaging, much-needed book fills an enormous gap in scholarship on mermaids. While serving as a comprehensive overview of their significance in Western culture, the book expands into examining merpeople globally, making it essential reading for anyone interested in how mermaids, or mythological creatures generally, shape and are shaped by cultures. --Jennifer A. Kokai, Weber State University, and author of Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature Merpeople offers an imaginative and beautifully illustrated survey of the persistent yet mutable fascination that these compound creatures have exerted over the last few millennia. --Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Merpeople is an impressive work. It provides a thoroughly researched overview of the circulation of mermaids and mermen in various cultural contexts. Scribner's analyses are well-supported by a range of striking visual material and the book is a valuable contribution to studies of the interface between folklore and popular culture. --Philip Hayward, University of Technology Sydney, and editor of Scaled for Success: The Internationalisation of the Mermaid

"""Scribner's thorough, engaging, much-needed book fills an enormous gap in scholarship on mermaids. While serving as a comprehensive overview of their significance in Western culture, the book expands into examining merpeople globally, making it essential reading for anyone interested in how mermaids, or mythological creatures generally, shape and are shaped by cultures.""--Jennifer A. Kokai, Weber State University, and author of Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature ""Merpeople offers an imaginative and beautifully illustrated survey of the persistent yet mutable fascination that these compound creatures have exerted over the last few millennia.""--Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ""Merpeople is an impressive work. It provides a thoroughly researched overview of the circulation of mermaids and mermen in various cultural contexts. Scribner's analyses are well-supported by a range of striking visual material and the book is a valuable contribution to studies of the interface between folklore and popular culture.""--Philip Hayward, University of Technology Sydney, and editor of Scaled for Success: The Internationalisation of the Mermaid"

Author Information

Vaughn Scribner is assistant professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of Inn Civility: Urban Taverns and Early American Civil Society.

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