The Sea (2005) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Max Morden: Retired art historian.
• Connie Grace: Holidaying at the cottage known as “The Cedars.”
• Carlo Grace: Connie’s husband.
• Chloe: The Graces’ daughter.
• Bett: Add a description of this character.
• Myles: Chloe’s mute twin brother.
• Fenster
• Rose: The twins’ nursemaid.
• Mr Todd: Anna's doctor.
• Claire: Max’s daughter.
• Anna: Max’s deceased wife.
• Griff

Quotes edit see section history

• “Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it.”

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• Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it.

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• Life, authentic life, is supposed to be all struggle, unflagging action and affirmation, the will butting its blunt head against the world’s wall, suchlike, but when I look back I see that the greater part of my energies was always given over to the simple search for shelter, for comfort, for, yes, I admit it, for cosiness.

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• We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations.

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• There are moments when the past has a force so strong it seems one might be annihilated by it.

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• Given the world that he created, it would be an impiety against God to believe in him.

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• That is why the past is just such a retreat for me, I go there eagerly, rubbing my hands and shaking off the cold present and the colder future. And yet, what existence, really, does it have, the past? After all, it is only what the present was, once, the present that is gone, no more than that. And yet.

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• Yes, this is what I thought adulthood would be, a kind of long indian summer, a state of tranquillity, of calm incuriousness, with nothing left of the barely bearable raw immediacy of childhood, all the things solved that had puzzled me when I was small, all mysteries settled, all questions answered, and the moments dripping away, unnoticed almost, drip by golden drip, toward the final, almost unnoticed, quietus.

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• But then, at what moment, of all our moments, is life not utterly, utterly changed, until the final, most momentous change of all?

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• Happiness was different in childhood. It was so much then a matter simply of accumulation, of taking things—new experiences, new emotions—and applying them like so many polished tiles to what would someday be the marvellously finished pavilion of the self.

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• What a little vessel of sadness we are, sailing in this muffled silence through the autumn dark.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Badeanzug
• Zedernvilla
• Station Road: The road in Ballyless near where Max Morden and the Graces live.

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Loss: Describe this theme.
• Grief
• Sexuality

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by The Red Queen.

Preceded by The Line of Beauty, and followed by The Inheritance of Loss.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. John Banville (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Man Booker Prize (2005)
• Pulitzer Prize (2005)
• Irish Book Award (2006)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( B ) › Banville, John
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Irish
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history