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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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About this listen

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

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
I've waited a while for an audio edition of The Sea, the sea, to become available. I think it might have been worth the wait to get one with Richard E. Grant. The cental figure, described regularly as: 'self satisfyed', Charles Arrowby is quite a difficult character for a narrator to get the tone right I imagine so it's good Grant, who always seems to me to be an under utilised talent, has got his character perfectly. He does superbly with all the various accents of the other characters in the book too. If a well told story of a (deserved or undeservedly) successful, hedonistic stage director who is, for some reason, infatuated with a married woman in a rural seaside location is your thing then this is the very best.

Sherry and bitters anyone?

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What a superb reader Richard E Grant is. His tone is perfectly suited to this odd, brilliant, vexatious book.

An elusive, ambiguous masterpiece

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Richard E Grant’s narration of this is perfect. Beautifully paced and immersive. A delight to listen to.

Fabulous.

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A unique, intriguing, beguiling book that flitters around truth but never lands on it, constantly forcing the reader to think beyond what is written and turn the page. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic but never obvious. The real magic here though, is in the reading; Richard E. Grant puts his life and soul into the characters and is the perfect choice for this book, providing just the right level of performance over straight reading and has a very well prepared and astute understanding of the text so that every sentence is phrased perfectly.

A perfect match of writer and narrator

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Richard E. Grant brought The Sea, The Sea to life in so many ways. I think this is one of the best narrations I have heard. Thank you very much.

Utterly brilliant narration

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