Home › Literary Fiction › The Sea, the Sea
Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulA retired theatre director settles by the sea and meets his first love again
The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch
1978502 pagesDemanding readSteady pace
★ Booker Prize, 1978
A retired director's seaside memoir goes wrong
Charles Arrowby, a famous theatre director, retires to a house on the English coast and begins to write about his life. When he sees Hartley, the love of his youth, living in the same village, he becomes fixated on winning her back. The novel won the 1978 Booker Prize.
More about this book
Who
Charles Arrowby, the narrator, and Hartley, his first love.
World
A house on the English coast.
What makes it different
The narrator's account slowly reveals more about himself than he intends.
Feel
Obsessive and darkly comic.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Sea, the SeaWikipedia