The Snuggly Sirenicon

Nineteen French authors dive into sexuality, celebrate wonder, and mourn the passing of an age of mystery in these freshly translated 19th- and 20th-century tales of sirens and mermaids—Stableford’s companion to his The Snuggly Satyricon. Though this showcase of canonical mermaid fiction can get repetitive, the more inventive entries prove riveting. Maurice Renard’s textural, Monaco-set thriller, “The Cantatrice,” builds a surprising mystery out of an opera director, a melancholy disabled singer, her dark impresario, and his own ominous doppelgänger. Early trope reversals—notably from Sapphic poet Renée Vivien in “The Song of the Sirens”—highlight century-old feminist imagination, while André Lichtenberger’s dry, politically biting satire “Mr. Cuffycoat’s Curious Adventure” drags a pompous, shipwrecked London sociologist into an encounter with a siren—and a confrontation with the brutal nature of modern war—in a piece in which hilarity gives way to sharp insight. Even the weaker vignettes, like Henri de Régniér’s “An Amorous Adventure at Sea,” have value in illuminating how the stresses of social change boil into folklore. Stableford’s translations ably capture the differing prose styles of the featured authors and showcase diverse, if dated, perspectives on sexuality, nationalism, race, and gender roles. Both folklore lovers and history fans will relish this survey of mermaid fiction’s roots. (Sept.)