レビュー要約

• 自己中心性と不穏なユーモアが同居し、長い滞在記のようでいて、終始心理的な圧力が続く。

レビュー

• Considering that I count reading as my main hobby, or pastime, and considering that I would, at least privately, count myself as having been a reader of mainly quality books for all of my adult life - and I am now approaching 60 - I am at a loss as to how it can be that I have never read Iris Murdoch before. What brought me to her, finally, was seeing the wonderful (highly, highly recommended) film, "Iris", which deals mainly with Iris Murdoch's eventual mental deterioration under the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. It was clear from factual events portrayed in that film that hers was an extremely formidable intellect. So I resolved to read some of her work. This is the first. It will most certainly not be the last. Winner of The Booker Prize (an accolade I sometimes find a little worrying in portent) and first published in 1978, "The Sea, The Sea" tells some of the story of Charles Arrowby's life, a recently retired maestro of the theatre, famous as actor, playwright and mainly as a much revered and feared director of the classics, Shakespeare in particular. At the relatively tender age of around 60, to the amazement and consternation of his friends and foes alike, he retires, more or less sells up, and buys a remote, antiquated, virtual ruin of a house standing on a rocky British seashore. From the hectic buzz and worldly comforts of his former existence he now moves to virtual isolation and precious few comforts, not even a telephone. Not even electricity. To pass his time he starts a diary, or a journal, or perhaps an autobiography; he is not sure himself . And this becomes our book. The main theme of the book is about Charles Arrowby's obsession with a long lost, and now accidentally rediscovered, first-love. To say any more would be to spoil the story. And this is a real "story", in the grand tradition of story telling, a very high quality page-turner maintaining almost thriller-like suspense throughout. It becomes clear very soon, as one reads, that this is the work of a powerful mind. The prose is magical without being intimidating. The language is vast and glorious, although you will seldom need your dictionary. Each word seems totally apt in its usage. The story is told by Charles himself, and the device of presenting it as a type of journal makes it clear and acceptable to the reader that he himself has no idea of what is going to happen next. It is as if he fills us in personally at the end of each day or so. In the narrative sections of the book Charles tells us the story in such an intimate way that we almost feel it's on a one-to-one basis; one can almost hear his voice, rich and mellifluous. To me, the narrative style could have been from an earlier and grander period (I'm not sure if this is IM's normal style, as I have not read anything else by her. Yet). There is also, at times, a definite staginess about it; meant literally, not critically. Characters (and what magnificent characters there are!) are introduced by the literary equivelent of an almost "enter-stage-left" technique, which, for this reader, added totally to the appeal of the book, and seemed most appropriate given the theatrical background of most of the characters. Any complaints? Maybe at 502 pages it was a little long. I have no objections in principle to long books. At today's prices the more words per book the better ! But I felt that perhaps the story didn't quite support the full volume. But that is just a very minor quibble. Overall, a wonderfully entertaining book, stunning use of the language and deeply insightful in places.

• Auch wenn der Protagonist heute eher ein Schreckbild darstellt, gefällt die gekonnte ironische Brechung, die Vielschichtigkeit der Deutungsebenen. Ein großer Roman.

• Iris Murdoch ne déçoit pas. Bonne édition, prix abordable.

• Good

• This story of the obsessive love of an egocentric and delusional retired theatre actor and director is compelling reading. It describes his chance meeting with the woman he loved in a small village where he has a cottage overlooking the sea and the repercussions for him and several of his friends. Iris Murdoch's depiction of the sea and its changing moods and colours is wondrous. You are not meant to like some of the characters, but you will never forget them. Highly recommended.

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