Wickedly funny and delightfully sad, Three Ladies Beside the Sea is a tale of love found, love lost, and love never-ending. Edward Gorey's off-kilter Edwardian maidens are the perfect accompaniment to Rhoda Levine's lilting rhymes.<br><br>The place is remote:<br>Three houses beside the sea.<br>The Characters are Few:<br>Laughing Edith of Ecstasy,<br>Edith so happy and gay.<br>Smiling Catherine of Compromise,<br>She smiles her life away.<br>And then there is Alice of Hazard,<br>A dangerous life leads she.<br>The question in the plot is quite simple:<br>Why is Alice up in a tree?<br>The answer can be discovered:<br>Edith and Catherine do.