-
The Sea, the Sea
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $35.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Flight from the Enchanter
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Businessman Mischa Fox has wealth, charisma, and an uncanny ability to influence those around him. When he moves to buy a small feminist magazine in London called the Artemis, Mischa becomes entangled in the lives of the Artemis’s editor, Hunter, his sister, Rosa, and her boarder, Annette, as well as their circle of friends. As Mischa instigates a series of ominous events that will change their lives, Murdoch’s masterful prose brings these rich characters - and their darkly humorous troubles - to vivid life.
-
-
Fables Vs. Real Life
- By Nichole Long on 11-09-17
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
worth the wait
- By L. Kerr on 06-01-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
Philosopher's Pupil
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When George McCaffrey’s car plunges into a canal with his wife still inside, nobody knows whether George is to blame. Nobody, that is, except an Anglican priest who happened to witness the whole thing. And when George’s former teacher, the charismatic philosopher Rozanov, returns to town, George’s life begins to spin wildly out of control.
-
-
A Trip Down a philosophical Lane
- By John on 03-11-13
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Word Child
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilary Burde was a rising star in academia until a tragic accident plunged him and his mentor and rival, Gunnar Jopling, into two decades of depression and guilt. Hilary, unable to overcome his pain, abandoned his promising career for an unfulfilling job as a civil servant. But at age 41, Hilary crosses paths again with Gunnar - initiating a series of events that will change their lives forever.
-
-
A vortex
- By Montcalm on 01-31-17
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Good Apprentice
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity, and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity, and his motives.
-
-
A Squabble of Smartypants
- By Geoff Maddison on 09-10-12
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Flight from the Enchanter
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Businessman Mischa Fox has wealth, charisma, and an uncanny ability to influence those around him. When he moves to buy a small feminist magazine in London called the Artemis, Mischa becomes entangled in the lives of the Artemis’s editor, Hunter, his sister, Rosa, and her boarder, Annette, as well as their circle of friends. As Mischa instigates a series of ominous events that will change their lives, Murdoch’s masterful prose brings these rich characters - and their darkly humorous troubles - to vivid life.
-
-
Fables Vs. Real Life
- By Nichole Long on 11-09-17
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
worth the wait
- By L. Kerr on 06-01-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
East of Eden
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Why have I avoided this Beautiful Book???
- By Kelly on 03-25-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
Philosopher's Pupil
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When George McCaffrey’s car plunges into a canal with his wife still inside, nobody knows whether George is to blame. Nobody, that is, except an Anglican priest who happened to witness the whole thing. And when George’s former teacher, the charismatic philosopher Rozanov, returns to town, George’s life begins to spin wildly out of control.
-
-
A Trip Down a philosophical Lane
- By John on 03-11-13
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Word Child
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilary Burde was a rising star in academia until a tragic accident plunged him and his mentor and rival, Gunnar Jopling, into two decades of depression and guilt. Hilary, unable to overcome his pain, abandoned his promising career for an unfulfilling job as a civil servant. But at age 41, Hilary crosses paths again with Gunnar - initiating a series of events that will change their lives forever.
-
-
A vortex
- By Montcalm on 01-31-17
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Good Apprentice
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity, and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity, and his motives.
-
-
A Squabble of Smartypants
- By Geoff Maddison on 09-10-12
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Unconsoled
- By: Kazuo Ishiguro
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The Remains of the Day, here is a novel that is at once a gripping psychological mystery, a wicked satire of the cult of art, and a poignant character study of a man whose public life has accelerated beyond his control. The setting is a nameless Central European city where Ryder, a renowned pianist, has come to give the most important performance of his life. Instead, he finds himself diverted on a series of cryptic and infuriating errands that nevertheless provide him with vital clues to his own past.
-
-
Very satisfied with this book!!
- By Becker_Books on 08-06-18
By: Kazuo Ishiguro
-
The Magician
- A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the 20th century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story Death in Venice.
-
-
Terrific listening experience
- By M. Mead on 09-17-21
By: Colm Toibin
-
The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
By: Robert Musil
-
The Magus
- By: John Fowles
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 26 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, and it continues to create tension and concern today.
-
-
Mystical Morality Tale of Love, Reality, Fidelity
- By W Perry Hall on 03-24-14
By: John Fowles
-
Time of the Angels
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Carel Fisher’s London rectory - like his faith - is a shell. The rectory remains hollowed and broken from bombs dropped in the Second World War, while his religious passion abandoned him long ago. As Carel becomes a shut-in, his brother Marcus sets out to save him before it’s too late. Rich and complex, The Time of the Angels is a powerful story of a man’s descent into madness, and the destruction he wreaks along the way
-
-
Stranger than fiction
- By Montcalm on 09-23-16
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
-
-
Best Audible book ever
- By Molly-o on 12-25-11
By: George Eliot
-
Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
-
-
Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
Circe
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child - not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring, like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power - the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
-
-
Not worth the hype but still good
- By Yvonne den Besten on 06-21-19
By: Madeline Miller
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
-
The Golden Notebook
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
-
-
Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
- By @vmarinelli on 07-03-12
By: Doris Lessing
-
The Master
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beautiful and profoundly moving, The Master tells the story of Henry James, a man born into one of America’s first intellectual families who leaves his country in the late 19th century to live in Paris, Rome, Venice, and London among privileged artists and writers. With stunningly resonant prose, “The Master is unquestionably the work of a first-rate novelist: artful, moving, and very beautiful” (The New York Times Book Review). The emotional intensity of this portrait is riveting.
-
-
What a Terrible Disappointment!
- By Sherry M. Rogers on 08-20-21
By: Colm Toibin
Publisher's Summary
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors - some real, some spectral - that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.
Featured Article: It Was the Best of Scribes—The Best British Authors
With its esteemed history and bold contemporary scene, Britain lays claim to some of the most exciting literature in audio. With the hundreds of incredible British writers throughout the centuries, a person could devote their whole literary life solely to British authors and still never run out of amazing things to listen to. Whether you're an avid Anglophile or just want to discover the best English novelists for yourself, here’s a list of the best for you to choose from!
More from the same
What listeners say about The Sea, the Sea
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RareReviewer
- 12-09-18
Lesson: Actors in haste repent in leisure
I found myself amazed at how long it took (about 70 pages in print, apparently) for this story to actually begin, but once the characters begin to appear, they all pile into the small, isolated seaside house, and come and go as energetically as in a drawing room comedy with slamming doors and quick entrances upon others' quick exits.
The vast middle of the book details the exhaustive, ill-formed plan of the protagonist, followed by its execution, failure, and examination from every angle by every character involved, whether in conversation or as our man Charles imagines them to be thinking.
Yet: I found myself captured and held by the narrator much as I disliked him and found him wrong-headed…not unlike his "victim" seems to regard him.
My biggest gripe is the various better endings Murdoch wrote us through only to pick up the story again, even including a resumption of the ill-formed plan. Still, it's amazingly well-written (it won the Booker Prize, of course), and this bizarre interpersonal plot and extensive narrator reflections is hard to turn away from, even if only to see how badly the retired actor will act toward his friends.
Skip the turgid introduction (not by Murdoch) with this audiobook, or wait until you've finished the book to listen to it — if only to compare Mary Kinzie's academic aridity with Iris Murdoch's fluency. As a masters thesis it may have worked, but it gives sway every major plot development and character's role and, as Murdoch already overlays her first-person narrator's voice with a great deal of Jungian analysis, it seems a pointless discourse on the symbolism of symbolic symbols — which the novel itself also explores.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- laurel
- 06-07-17
Pure pleasure
Any additional comments?
Simon Vance's reading is exquisite. I'd read this long ago, and listening to it was reminded again of how brilliant and often hilarious Murdoch's writing is. Vance captures the protagonist so perfectly I wish he'd narrate all of Murdoch.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sara
- 08-30-17
Murdoch Amazes
This languidly beautiful first person narrative was completely engaging. The story was insightful and filled with reflections and thoughts on everyday life, looking both forward and looking backwards at retirement. Murdoch's skill at writing made simple daily tribulations interesting and even enticing. The characters were well developed and easily recognizable.
I loved Murdoch's use of the recurring theme of the ocean which created a solid framework or backbone for the book. The detailed description of the sea, its changing color, light and movement never became tiresome or too much. Instead it grounded the story, filled it with beauty, danger, monsters and destruction.
The narration was excellent. I wasn't sure about Vance at first but I was quickly won over by his reading style. The only negative I have about this edition of the book was that I really disliked the introduction. So if it bogs you down I'd suggest just skipping it. That part felt heavy handed. Don't let it turn you away from a wonderful book.
A classic, the 1978 Booker Prize winner and not to be missed. Excellent.
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rosemary Laberee
- 11-24-18
Dark, tense, a gentle almost magical bludgeoning...
What a miraculous book. I have only just now finished it, and I already know that I will begin the re-listening of it tonight. I cannot wait. Without a doubt, it is on that shelf of one of the very best.
You are wondering what it is about? Heavy sigh. It is about everything, of course, as the greatest books are. But, Murdoch focuses with frightening clarity on marriages, relationships, lost love, delusions, the darkness we hide from, and the darkness we hide away.
It is a stormy, psychological journey into the hearts of many different characters whose paths are all intertwined. It begins with a famous actor/director (Charles Arrowby) retiring to a little run-down house by the sea where he swims, cooks wonderful meals, collects rocks, thinks, and writes about his life. Lord, it sounded like heaven to me. Of course, it was not.
There are tiny little shadows cast upon the reader from the start, and we slowly grow uneasy with the knowledge that so much is hooded, masked, and cloaked in falseness and danger, but we cannot quite put our finger on what it is. The zig-zagging trajectory of the tangled lives cannot be forecasted by the reader. Although we long for a predictable outcome to so many of the extraordinary events, this is not what we get. Murdoch is a realist. She puts a little dash of beast in everyone and the effect is a gentle bludgeoning which (sickeningly) we do understand, and from which (appallingly) we cannot tear our ears away.
I felt slightly shackled to this story. Even when I took a break from the listening, her words followed me. Everywhere. It is haunting. It is very powerful. Murdoch was an amazing talent. How many authors can conjure the perfect words to describe "eyes that are determined to lose hope"? She does this and other breathtaking word-feats. Aren't you curious?
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Oral Sinclair
- 12-06-18
Again!
Lost in Iris Murdoch's story and language from the beginning. So much here that after I pull up the boat, make camp, and get a good night's sleep, I will do it again.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MWC
- 12-26-17
Entirely satisfactory
Richly written and fully engaging, there is no wonder The Sea, The Sea was awarded the Booker prize.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- W Perry Hall
- 06-22-17
All our failures are ultimately failures in love
"All our failures are ultimately failures in love." Iris Murdoch
Oh boy. This is deep, dudes. Far out and deeply deep, dudettes.
Rather than trying my unworthy hand at a thorough analysis of a psychologically complex 500 page novel, I shall lay track for a few grooves.
Dig it.
Near the beginning, I thought it might be a romance. No way, man. More like a real Mystery of Mental and Emotional Health and Well-being.
What is love? How is the idea or thought of it, especially young love, affected by the passage of time, what with our tendency to romanticize our youth?
The painful paradox of the ego (false pride), with its fang-ed sea serpent 'jealousy,' blinding us to reason, depriving us of patience and filling us with anger, all of which operates to ruin the very love that our innate sexuality tells us to cherish above all else.
The ways we lie to ourselves to enable the fantasy, even to the edge of sanity, that another loves us despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
This is a thought provoker that goes down some murky places in the mind. Some readers may be turned off by what at times seems like a long-windedness of the first person narrator. Although it seemed to me, after finishing it, that 50 pages could have been trimmed, I haven't studied it enough to make conclude that those 50 were unneeded, and not the kick that pushed this novel into "classic" territory.
I could delve into all my thoughts triggered by the profundity of Iris Murdoch. It would be a ramble for it reminds me of how I languished in damaged love's lassitudes all the day I finished it. So, in that respect, I couldn't have read a more timely book.
This is a surefire 4.5 stars on the water.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Edith
- 08-24-19
Ho hum
The Booker Prize? Really? The plot of this tiresome tale is thin, puffed up by many, many irrelevent diversions, mostly about food and drink, and only exciting if you're into beans on toast and cheap wine. One is never convinced that the first-person narrator is male, let alone that his selfish and unrealistic love obsessions are worth this lenghty text or Simon Vance's struggle to bring such a laborious tale to life. I heard that Iris Murdoch wrote some good books. This is not one of them.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Digit Head
- 02-09-18
Yes, it's an unfair rating
I never made it past Chapter 1, which was a very descriptive and very long hour of detailed analysis of the book. It was the equivalent of reading Cliff Notes and by the time the hour ended I could not decide if it were a case of not needing to listen to the next 20 hours or not wanting to. So I returned it.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher
- 05-20-22
long-winded mediocrity
What a remarkably low bar to set in those reviewers calling this a masterpiece. Ugh.