, explores the attempt by two cousins, Charles and James Arrowby to renounce “magic” and reach a spiritual identity. Their respective journeys allow Murdoch to explore the nature of power, obsession, illusion and self-delusion, which, in this novel, become dangerous and murderous. The book won The Booker Prize in 1978 and is one of Murdoch's masterpieces in the representation of the deluded consciousness of the unreliable narrator, Charles Arrowby. A retired theatrical writer/actor/director and habitual womaniser, he has, throughout his life, conducted a succession of callous and destructive love affairs and most recently nursed his lover, Clement, through a long and painful death due to cancer. As the story opens, he is to abjure his life of egoism and is to seek out…
971 words
Citation: Rowe, Anne. "The Sea, The Sea". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 May 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7664, accessed 26 November 2024.]
