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The Sea, the Sea

  • Book
  • 1978
  • #Fiction #Literature
Iris Murdoch
@IrisMurdoch
(Author)
www.goodreads.com
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3.93/5 15.3k ratings
2 Recommenders
3 Mentions
2 Collections
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 wit... Show More

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 to 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.

In exposing the jumble of motivations that drive Arrowby and the other characters, Iris Murdoch lays bare "the truth of untruth"--the human vanity, jealousy, and lack of compassion behind the disguises they present to the world. Played out against a vividly rendered landscape and filled with allusions to myth and magic, Charles's confrontation with the tidal rips of love and forgiveness is one of Murdoch's most moving and powerful novels.

(From Goodreads)

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Number of Pages: 528

ISBN: 014118616X

ISBN-13: 9780141186160

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Austin Kleon @austinkleon
  • Curated in A Dozen Good Books I Read This Summer
Sam Burt @wordsburt · Jun 19, 2018
  • Curated in Must-read Novels About Writers
“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.”
Austin Kleon @austinkleon · Nov 30, 2022
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That book drove me crazy but i would reread it and if I would reread a book it makes me think it’s good
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  • Sam Burt
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    Must-read Novels About Writers
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  • Austin Kleon
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    A Dozen Good Books I Read This Summer
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