Water cluster anions (H2O)(n)(-) with n = 2-8 are considered as a gradual approach to the model of a hydrated electron. In the structures of cluster anions optimized at the unrestricted Hartree-Fock level, the excess electron density is always localized around protons of the hydrogen atoms uninvolved in hydrogen bonds. Yet, two types of structures are distinguished. In the first type, the excess electron is localized in an individual though deformed cluster. The second type embraces the face-to-face anionic species? in which two confronted clusters that are not joined via a usual hydrogen bond localize the electron. The vertical energies of the electron detachment from the anions estimated in the second order of the Moller-Plesset perturbation theory are positive already for the trimer anion consisting of the confronted monomer and dimer. A transformation of the plain chainlike neutral octamer into the most stable face-to-face anion upon adding an electron shows that eight molecules already can form a stable solvation shell of the excess electron. Varying the exponent of the diffuse s functions centered on hydrogen nuclei showed that there is probably an optimum exponent of about 0.020 for the description of the hydrated electron. Two types of excess electron localization are distinguished, namely, surface and interface.