E. M. Forster 
The Story of the Siren 

The cream of Edwardian supernatural fiction. The Story of the Siren is a a prayer of hope for the future and a hymn to the destructive and redemptive power of nature. Told in the format of a story-within-a-story, a pompous British tourist in Sicily loses a manuscript on Deism to the sea and in return hears a terrifying and wonderful story about a mermaid from his tour guide.