Probably Iris Murdoch’s best know work, this lovely story about a man retiring, selling up and moving to a remote place only to rediscover his first love will take your breath away with it’s language and beauty. A real modern day classic.
September 2009 Guest Editor Emily Barr on The Sea, The Sea by IRIS MURDOCH
I read this just after my first child was born, and was transported to the world of Charles Arrowby. Murdoch is a stunning, witty writer. I particularly admire the way she gives us an unappealing central character and somehow makes us sympathise with his egocentric delusions. And the presence of the sea itself, almost as a character, makes this a hypnotic read.
When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside idyll severely threatened by his past.
'There is no doubt in my mind that Iris Murdoch is one of the most important novelists now writing in English…The power of her imaginative vision, her intelligence and her awareness and revelation of human truth are quite remarkable' The Times
Author
About Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919 of Anglo-Irish parents. She went to Badminton School, Bristol, and read classics at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1948 she returned to Oxford where she became a fellow of St Anne's college. Awarded the CBE in 1976, Iris Murdoch was made a DBE in the 1987 New Year's Honours List. She died in February 1999.
