The Sea, The Sea (Vintage Booker)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Sea, The Sea for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
`A fabulous novel... funny and poignant and is arguably Murdoch's finest hour' --The Express
Vogue
'A fantastic feat of imagination as well as a marvellous sustained piece of writing'
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When Charles Arrowby retreats to the sea to live the life of a hermit in a dilapidated stone cottage he is in search of peace and tranquillity. He spends his days swimming in the swelling sea and practicing his own form of stripped down gourmet cooking. But when he encounters an old flame from his childhood the idyllic retirement he imagined is ambushed by obsession and he quickly finds his solitude interrupted by the London world he had tried to escape.
So begins a tale of almost fantastical depth. Like the sea at its epicentre this is a novel which often seems calm and content, almost frail, but which at any given moment is want to swell and crash down with devastating consequences, only to recede carrying with it all ones expectations. It is this transience of nature, this ephemeral air which makes The Sea, The Sea such a joy. It is everything you ever wanted a novel to be, and yet nothing all at the same time.
The characterisation is first rate: from the magical realist eastern mysticism of Charles' cousin James through the joyful campness of his theatre friends to the dour and defeated strength of his childhood love there is a real sense of place, of permanence, of solidity. And with such a capricious main character as Charles Arrowby it is a pleasure to lose oneself in his mind and to live by the sea, with its daily transformations and impulsive unpredictability.
I want to say something dramatically understated which could emphasise how delightfully real this book is, to encourage everyone out there to buy it and read it and enjoy it. It is not a dense or difficult book, and there are surprising twists around each corner. Perhaps I could compare it to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, once you open these pages you really will never want to leave.
So begins a tale of almost fantastical depth. Like the sea at its epicentre this is a novel which often seems calm and content, almost frail, but which at any given moment is want to swell and crash down with devastating consequences, only to recede carrying with it all ones expectations. It is this transience of nature, this ephemeral air which makes The Sea, The Sea such a joy. It is everything you ever wanted a novel to be, and yet nothing all at the same time.
The characterisation is first rate: from the magical realist eastern mysticism of Charles' cousin James through the joyful campness of his theatre friends to the dour and defeated strength of his childhood love there is a real sense of place, of permanence, of solidity. And with such a capricious main character as Charles Arrowby it is a pleasure to lose oneself in his mind and to live by the sea, with its daily transformations and impulsive unpredictability.
I want to say something dramatically understated which could emphasise how delightfully real this book is, to encourage everyone out there to buy it and read it and enjoy it. It is not a dense or difficult book, and there are surprising twists around each corner. Perhaps I could compare it to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, once you open these pages you really will never want to leave.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was gripped after reading the first few pages of Murdoch's book, and immediately fell in love with her vivid descriptive style. The book cleverly shifts its shape as it develops and the characters are not who you think they are. Like the sea it has many layers. A haunting and lyrical masterpiece.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Sea The Sea is a portrait of a man who, Prospero like, retires to live in solitude by the sea and declares himself to have abjured the magic and illusion which have been woven into his career in the theatre. Becoming obsessed with a childhood sweetheart who by coincidence is living in the village, he sets in motion a chain of events which throw a spotlight onto his own psyche and its attitudes towards love, jealousy and the nature of the world.
This complex novel is in turn an intelligent study of a man towards the end of his life, a nostaligic story of love, and a gripping tale of madness. Set against the alluring menace of the sea, it will charm and entrance you throughout.
This complex novel is in turn an intelligent study of a man towards the end of his life, a nostaligic story of love, and a gripping tale of madness. Set against the alluring menace of the sea, it will charm and entrance you throughout.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Descriptive and Absorbing
This is a great read if you are a patient person and don't mind long descriptive passages and like another great novel Head of an Apostle the details are part of the enjoyment and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Lesley Tingle
not the easiest read
chosen for our book club, but not used to Iris Murdoch, does she always write in this style? Not keen on the characters, but the descriptive passages are well-written; gradually as... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Smartiej
Irritating book
I cannot believe i actually made it to the end of this awful book. far from being enchanted by coastal and seascape descriptions I was constantly irritated by pages and pages of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by AtlantisBlue
Brilliant!
Amazing- a Booker Prize winner that I really enjoyed (I detailed my various Booker disappointments in my recent review of Margaret Attwood's The Blind Assassin). Read more
Published 9 months ago by Donald Hughes
A book of its time
It is probably too early to judge this book on its literary merits. At the moment, it already feels very dated and time will tell if it is a good one. Read more
Published 10 months ago by P. Burnard
The Sea, The Sea
This is an absolutely brilliant read. As usual with my purchases through Amazon it was delivered promptly and was good value.
Published 13 months ago by book-worm
The coastline of this Great Isle is calling
Reason for purchasing: The majority of people who have read Iris Murdoch of late saw the documentary on television simply called Iris. Not I. Read more
Published 17 months ago by K. M. Knight
The Sigh, The Sigh
How can a book manage to be hysterical, banal and tedious all at the same time? That life, or indeed Charles Arrowby, can be all of these things may have been the point but it... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Irwin Winterchest
What insight, what emotional understanding, what writing talent!
Captivating, intriguing, fascinating, impossible to put down - Iris Murdoch's chronicle of one man's obsession with the love of his life. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Kornmuhme
The Wonderful Sea
The Sea, The Sea seemingly tells the story of a one time undying love that lasts a lifetime. It describes the calm before the storm, the calm after the storm, and the intensity of... Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2010 by MangoChesney
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
