On Chesil Beach
| On Chesil Beach | |
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 Cover of UK hardback |
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| Author(s) | Ian McEwan |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 166 |
| ISBN | 0224081187 |
| OCLC Number | 76797966 |
On Chesil Beach (ISBN 0385522401) is a 2007 novella by the Booker Prize-winning British writer Ian McEwan. The novel was selected for the 2007 Booker Prize shortlist.
The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Jonathan Yardley placed On Chesil Beach on his top ten for 2007, praising McEwan's writing and saying that "even when he's in a minor mode, as he is here, he is nothing short of amazing".
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[edit] Plot summary
In July 1962, Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting, have just been married and are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore, at Chesil Beach. The couple are very much in love despite being from drastically different backgrounds, with Mayhew the son of a schoolmaster and Ponting the musically gifted daughter of a wealthy industrialist and an Oxford philosophy lecturer.
During the course of an evening, both reflect upon their upbringing and the prospect of their futures. Edward is sexually motivated and though intelligent has a taste for rash behaviour, while Florence, bound by the social code of another era, and as a child molested by her own father, is terrified of sexual intimacy: eventually this leads to an experience that will change their relationship irrevocably.
The novel focuses upon the couple's different personalities and attitudes and the development of their love in the dawning of a sexual awakening in 1960s Britain. 1962 was the year when the contraceptive pill became available in the United Kingdom. Before this, sex before marriage ran the risk of unwanted pregnancy and possibly unwanted marriage. Edward and Florence represent the last generation who would never have sex before marriage; in their case with disastrous results.
[edit] Controversy
In a BBC Radio 4 interview, McEwan admitted to taking a few pebbles from Chesil Beach and keeping them on his desk while he wrote the novel. Protests by conservationists and a threat by Weymouth and Portland borough council to fine him £2,000 led the author to return the pebbles. "I was not aware of having committed a crime," he said. "Chesil Beach is beautiful and I'm delighted to return the shingle to it."[1]
[edit] Film adaptation
McEwan has announced that he has written a screenplay for "On Chesil Beach" and that Sam Mendes will direct it. He hopes to start shooting the film towards the end of 2010. He has also stated that he hopes to have Carey Mulligan play the part of Florence.
[edit] References
- ^ Maev Kennedy in The Guardian, Friday, 6 April 2007
[edit] External links
- An excerpt of the book in The New Yorker
- A review in The Economist
- The On Chesil Beach section of McEwan's website
- A review by Ted Gioia, Blogcritics
- A review by Tim Adams in The Observer of March 25, 2007.
- [1] A humorous summary from The Guardian.
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