is John Banville’s fourteenth novel. It received many excellent reviews on publication, although it was the winning of the Booker Prize in 2005, against exceptionally strong competition, that set the book on the road to becoming a modern classic. The novel is one of Banville’s best, and its author, as is often claimed, one of the most innovative contemporary writers in English.

is highly representative of contemporary fiction in its questioning of narrative authority and obsession with history and memory; the latter two themes are also common ones in current Irish fiction. There is a significant body of criticism relating to the novel, although as good a place as any to start is a highly perceptive review by Finn Fordham (2005), whose observations will be used below.

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Citation: Turner, Nick. "The Sea". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 April 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16820, accessed 27 November 2024.]