The Sea, the Sea

Booker Prize Winner

By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction

Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr

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.

Critic reviews

Winner of the Booker Prize

"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 powerful novel about the dismantling of ego, the truth of love—I’m in awe of Murdoch’s genius." —Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review

"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

"This comedy is lit with the aplomb of true comedy’s calm understanding of moral obliquity. . . . There is the genuine weight of obsession in Arrowby’s narrative, but also the mere weight of iteration and ingenuity." —Martin Greenberg, The New York Times Book Review

"Murdoch's subtly, blackly humorous digs at human vanity and self-delusion periodically build into waves of hilarity, and Arrowby is a brilliant creation: a deeply textured, intriguing yet unreliable narrator, and one of the finest character studies of the 20th century." —Sophia Martelli, The Guardian

"The author renders her immorality play with painstaking attention to atmosphere: the changing hues of the waves, the slippery amber rocks, the strangely damp house are all made palpable. The old scandals are shrewdly reexamined, and Murdoch's style is as saline as the sea below." —Time

"One of the best and most influential writers of the 20th century . . . She connected goodness, against the temper of the times, not with the quest for an authentic identity so much as with the happiness that can come about when that quest can be relaxed." —Peter Conradi, The Guardian

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.

Old Actor trying to salvage old loves…

The story is definitely not the first time Murdoch has written about people looking back at their lives in old ages (such as Bruno’s dream) but it’s peculiar. I deducted one star because reading about someone else’s obsessions can get absolutely depressing and tiring. The narration is spot on!

Entrancing

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

Thoughtful

I read this novel some 40 years ago and remembered only the stalking. Worthwhile to listen this time and appreciate the depth of questioning. Very nice now to know James as a counterpart to Charles. Big fan of the narrator. Much less of the introductory essay which struck me as a distraction. Let the author speak for herself.

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.