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The Sea, The Sea

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The Sea, The Sea

By: Iris Murdoch, Daisy Johnson - introduction, John Burnside - introduction
Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

VINTAGE CLASSICS MURDOCH: Funny, subversive, fearless and fiercely intelligent, Iris Murdoch was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. To celebrate her centenary Vintage Classics presents special editions of her greatest and most timeless novels.

‘I saw a monster rising from the waves.'

Charles Arrowby has determined to spend the rest of his days in hermit-like contemplation. He buys a mysteriously damp house on the coast, far from the heady world of the theatre where he made his name, and there he swims in the sea, eats revolting meals and writes his memoirs. But then he meets his childhood sweetheart Hartley, and memories of her lovely, younger self crowd in – along with more recent lovers and friends – to disrupt his self-imposed exile. So instead of 'learning to be good', Charles proceeds to demonstrate how very bad he can be.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 1978.

© Iris Murdoch 1978 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural World Literature Funny
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Critic reviews

It isn't all brainy fantasising in Murdochland; there's wild swimming, appalling sandwiches, death, madness and sex.
How bloody good her novels are – how intelligent, how lucent, how divinely crazy. They’re fun – I’d forgotten that
Dazzlingly entertaining and inventive
One of the most ambitious tours de force in many years... There are pages one races through to see what happens. She is a virtuoso at description
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
A fantastic feat of imagination as well as a marvellous sustained piece of writing
It was the first book I read by this brilliant author, and encouraged me to go on and read almost all her others. It is at times incredibly funny, moving and mysterious. Murdoch creates drama in the real world with flawed humans and yet there is also a spiritual layer that creeps up on you
Just like the sea, this novel ebbs and flows, at times fast-paced and full of action, at others reflective… a mesmerising and addictive read
The Sea, The Sea is both a novel entirely about the era in which it was written and one that reflects – at an angle – the place and time we are living in… it is a joy to read: a rollicking story that seems endlessly to be building towards some awful, hilarious, frightening conclusion
All stars
Most relevant
Richard E Grant the perfect narrator for this sensational story. The plot does stretch a bit thin at times, but who cares with Grant brilliantly bringing the self indulgent, utterly selfish Charles Arrowby to life. I enjoyed the descriptions of the landscape, the atmosphere of Shruff End and most of all, those preposterous snobby gastronomic declarations of Arrowby as he describes his hideous tinned meals.

fantastic narration

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I had for some reason never read this book although I like Iris Murdoch. A marvellous funny and moving and surprising story. Read excellently by Richard E Grant, who has the vocal range to express all the characters, male and female, believably.

Almost perfect

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This has long been my favourite novel but the manner in which Richard E. Grant completely and unselfconciously inhabits each character allowed me to enjoy and appreciate the twisting and sometimes chaotic narrative in a whole different light. All of the characters are in their own way incredibly flawed humans and their actions throughout are cold, cruel and callous but Richard E. Grant's interpretation and realisation of them brings a dark comedy to proceedings that wasn't immediately apparent to me on the occasions when I have myself read the novel. A perfect tale of human conceit, mysticism, folly, madness and the inevitable passage of time combined with a perfect narrator who seems to relish and revel in the outlandish material without ever losing control of the narratives ebb and flow.

Perfect

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A virtuosic performance, marred only by a completely overwrought, camp, lisping depiction of Gilbert, but I forgive it because Richard E. Grant. His performances of the women are sensitive and delicate.
The book is bizarre and frustrating but is incredibly vivid and has a wonderful inner life.

Fantastic Performance, Exasperating Book

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An ingenious, curious and unpredictable series of events. Funny in places and almost unbearably sad in others.

The narration by Richard E Grant is absolutely superb.

What an experience!

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