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The Sea, The Sea

byIris Murdoch, Daisy Johnson (Introducer), John Burnside (Introducer)
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.

‘It isn’t all brainy fantasising in Murdochland; there’s wild swimming, appalling sandwiches, death, madness and sex’ Guardian

‘Dazzlingly entertaining and inventive’ The Times


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DAISY JOHNSON

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE**

Dazzlingly entertaining and inventive

The Times

About Iris Murdoch

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. After working in the Treasury and in the UN, she discovered philosophy, eventually becoming Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford. Her philosophical concerns are at the heart of the 25 novels for which she became famous, gaining the Whitbread Prize for The Sacred and Profane Love Machine and the Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She wrote poetry all her life.


Rachel Hirschler is the lead transcriber with the Iris Murdoch Collections at Kingston University Archives. Miles Leeson, Anne Rowe and Frances White are leading academics and editors who have published widely on Iris Murdoch’s life, philosophy and novels. Together they administer and contribute to the work of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, the Iris Murdoch Society and the Iris Murdoch Review.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • ISBN: 9780099284093
  • Length: 576 pages
  • Dimensions: 197mm x 37mm x 130mm
  • Weight: 403g
  • Price: £10.99