On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
6 Rating(s)
List: $14.00 | Sale: $10.08
Club: $7.00

On Chesil Beach

Author: Ian McEwan

Narrator: Ian McEwan

Unabridged: 4 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/05/2007


Synopsis

BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive interview with the author!

A novel of remarkable depth and poignancy from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time

It is July 1962. Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florence’s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite.

Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwan–a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Valerie on 2008-06-12 20:07:35

There's nothing better than a book read by the author. And in this case, the story of the details of a wedding night are so beautifully described it feels like you are inside the characters heads in real time.

AudiobooksNow review by Jeanne on 2009-03-10 11:00:55

The reviews I read discouraged me from reading On Chesil Beach, although I have enjoyed McEwan's other books. So when I finally got to it, I was pleasantly surprised. Far more than the story of a honeymoon gone awry, the book is a view of an earlier age. It's not a 'pageturner' but I enjoyed it and recommend it to readers who enjoy literary fiction.