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| Plot Summary of The Sea, The Sea |
"Charles Arrowby, a longtime English stage actor and director, has retired to an isolated home near the village of Narrowdean, on the north coast of England. Charles begins writing in a journal about his past. Various ex-lovers and hangers-on from that past show up and complicate his retirement, and then he discovers his first love, Mary Hartley Smith (now Mrs. Ben Fitch), also lives in Narrowdean. The two were a couple at the tender age of 12, and through all his adventures with women since, Charles has dreamed of Hartley. He schemes about winning her back, rescuing her from her unpleasant, working-class husband, and perhaps mentoring their son Titus, who is estranged from his parents. Various characters are tempted to kill one another, and the dark heaving sea will kill at least one person before Charles rids himself of his many illusions. This slow and inconclusive but rich 1978 novel won the Booker prize for Murdoch."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Sea, The Sea |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems
Yes
Kind of romance:
- rekindling lost love/marriage
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 60's-90's
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- eccentric
- deluded
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 60's-90's
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 (a fair amount)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Water?
Yes
Water:
- swimming on
- drowning
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Unusual Style:
- written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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