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We see a pike and a swordfish locked in a comical battle. A pipefish blows smoke at an angry fishwife. A peaceful-looking monkfish oversees the wedding of a wealthy cod and his mate. In this underwater world, the shark is a gambler, and the dolphin is a fashionable gentleman. The entertainment ends with the grand spectacle of "his majesty," the whale, spouting water.
This gentle humor and mild satire made The Mermaid "at Home!" light entertainment. This was a relatively new type of book for children at the time. Until the middle of the 1700s, children's literature was mostly serious and educational. It often lacked pictures. There were some illustrated encyclopedias, but they were meant to teach, not to amuse.
In 1744, a publisher named John Newbery changed things. He published A Little Pretty Pocket Book. It was small, cheap, colorful, and designed to appeal directly to a child. He followed it with other educational but playful titles, like Mother Goose's Melody (circa 1765). These books marked the start of an important new trend. They appeared during a time when people were starting to see childhood as a special time of life. Newbery, leading this change, soon became known as the "Father of Children's Literature." Not surprisingly, these more enjoyable books sold very well to a growing number of readers. They outsold the often dull educational books that had come before.
The publisher of The Mermaid "at Home!" was John Harris. He had apprenticed in the publishing business from a young age. He worked briefly for a publisher named John Murray before joining Newbery's company. He stayed there until he was in his forties. The Newbery children's books, while more appealing than earlier ones, were still quite instructional.
In 1802, when Harris was forty-six and Newbery had long since died, Harris bought the publishing business. This gave him complete editorial freedom. Harris immediately began to produce books that were purely fun and whimsical. He illustrated them more heavily than Newbery had, preferring detailed copperplate engravings to simpler woodcuts.
Some of his earliest and most successful books were The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard, and Her Dog (1805) and The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast (1807). These books sold very well. In 1809, The Mermaid "at Home!" was published in full color. It was one of 419 titles in Harris's very successful catalogue of books.
The book's illustrations bring the underwater party to life with witty details. The text that accompanies the images is playful verse. For example, one caption describes the battle scene: "The Sword and the Pike, the Sabre and Lance, were bravely employ'd against the legions of France." This pokes fun at military conflicts of the era by showing fish in armor.