The Sea, the Sea

By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction

Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors—some real, some spectral—that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.

©1978 Iris Murdoch (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Profound and delicious for many reasons . . . a multilayered working out of her feelings about the intensity of romantic experience. . . [it] also happens to be intelligently and sympathetically concerned with four of my favorite things: swimming, eating, drinking and talking . . . it is an ideal beach book—especially if you enjoy the cooler and pebblier and spookier northern sort of beach."—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"A joy to read: a rollicking story that seems endlessly to be building towards some awful, hilarious, frightening conclusion."—Harper’s Bazaar

"Sublime [and] profound . . . She takes great care to imbue the house, the sea, the surroundings—everything—with depth and significance . . . exhilarating."—Sam Jordison, The Guardian, "Booker club"

Brilliant Narration

Skip the prologue. It’s a load of
unnecessary gibberish. The story
moves well overall but there are periods where it mires. There are
few narrators that could work this
as well.

Entrancing

A great and profound novel. And frequently hilarious. Simon Vance is brilliant , helping immeasurably to bring the whole thing to life.

Again!

Lost in Iris Murdoch's story and language from the beginning. So much here that after I pull up the boat, make camp, and get a good night's sleep, I will do it again.

Way too long

I refused to give up on this novel because I wanted to finish it, thinking it’s going to pick up. It never did. The middle 2/3 could be cut. Plot doesn’t move along. I wouldn’t have minded so much if the interior thoughts of the protagonist actually carried some philosophical insight or were even entertaining but the character is just self absorbed and full of nonsensical ponderings. However, at least now I am very familiar with British food!

It’s the Narrator

The story is magnificently told. The characters are so much fun. The plot is twisty and clever. This a story made for audio. Love. It.

Dark, tense, a gentle almost magical bludgeoning...

What a miraculous book. I have only just now finished it, and I already know that I will begin the re-listening of it tonight. I cannot wait. Without a doubt, it is on that shelf of one of the very best.

You are wondering what it is about? Heavy sigh. It is about everything, of course, as the greatest books are. But, Murdoch focuses with frightening clarity on marriages, relationships, lost love, delusions, the darkness we hide from, and the darkness we hide away.

It is a stormy, psychological journey into the hearts of many different characters whose paths are all intertwined. It begins with a famous actor/director (Charles Arrowby) retiring to a little run-down house by the sea where he swims, cooks wonderful meals, collects rocks, thinks, and writes about his life. Lord, it sounded like heaven to me. Of course, it was not.

There are tiny little shadows cast upon the reader from the start, and we slowly grow uneasy with the knowledge that so much is hooded, masked, and cloaked in falseness and danger, but we cannot quite put our finger on what it is. The zig-zagging trajectory of the tangled lives cannot be forecasted by the reader. Although we long for a predictable outcome to so many of the extraordinary events, this is not what we get. Murdoch is a realist. She puts a little dash of beast in everyone and the effect is a gentle bludgeoning which (sickeningly) we do understand, and from which (appallingly) we cannot tear our ears away.

I felt slightly shackled to this story. Even when I took a break from the listening, her words followed me. Everywhere. It is haunting. It is very powerful. Murdoch was an amazing talent. How many authors can conjure the perfect words to describe "eyes that are determined to lose hope"? She does this and other breathtaking word-feats. Aren't you curious?

Entertaining and instructive

One hopes not to be as monstrous as Charles Araby, but it's a believable monstrosity - self-regarding and delusional. And one suppose we're all capable of some self-regard and some powers of convincing oneself that the world is other than it is. This novel is, unsurprisingly a philosophical meditation wrapped in an enjoyable romp.

An interesting novel, but ultimately too drawn out.

The protagonist and his cast of supporting characters are equally engaging and infuriating. But the thoughts it raises on how to become a “moral person” are familiar ones for fans of Murdoch.
The only pity is it is overly long in the middle section and is obsession with an old flame. The point would have been made in half the words devoted to this.
The narrator was excellent.

All our failures are ultimately failures in love

"All our failures are ultimately failures in love." Iris Murdoch

Oh boy. This is deep, dudes. Far out and deeply deep, dudettes.

Rather than trying my unworthy hand at a thorough analysis of a psychologically complex 500 page novel, I shall lay track for a few grooves.

Dig it.
Near the beginning, I thought it might be a romance. No way, man. More like a real Mystery of Mental and Emotional Health and Well-being.

What is love? How is the idea or thought of it, especially young love, affected by the passage of time, what with our tendency to romanticize our youth?

The painful paradox of the ego (false pride), with its fang-ed sea serpent 'jealousy,' blinding us to reason, depriving us of patience and filling us with anger, all of which operates to ruin the very love that our innate sexuality tells us to cherish above all else.

The ways we lie to ourselves to enable the fantasy, even to the edge of sanity, that another loves us despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.


This is a thought provoker that goes down some murky places in the mind. Some readers may be turned off by what at times seems like a long-windedness of the first person narrator. Although it seemed to me, after finishing it, that 50 pages could have been trimmed, I haven't studied it enough to make conclude that those 50 were unneeded, and not the kick that pushed this novel into "classic" territory.

I could delve into all my thoughts triggered by the profundity of Iris Murdoch. It would be a ramble for it reminds me of how I languished in damaged love's lassitudes all the day I finished it. So, in that respect, I couldn't have read a more timely book.

This is a surefire 4.5 stars on the water.

Pure pleasure

Any additional comments?

Simon Vance's reading is exquisite. I'd read this long ago, and listening to it was reminded again of how brilliant and often hilarious Murdoch's writing is. Vance captures the protagonist so perfectly I wish he'd narrate all of Murdoch.