A little bit of literature

“I was the dreamer, I the magician. How much I see as I look back, I read into it all, reading my own dream text and not looking at the reality. Hartley had been right when she said of our love that it was not part of the real world. It had no place. But what strikes me now is that at some point, in order to ease things for myself, I decided, almost surreptitiously, to regard her as a liar. In order to release myself from the burden of my tormented attachment, I began, with the half-conscious cunning so characteristic of the self-protective human ego, to see her as a poor hysterical shrew; and this debased pity, which I tried to imagine was some kind of spiritual compassion, was the half-way house to my escape. I could not bear the spectacle of that whimpering captive victim in that awful windowless room which I still see in nightmares. My love’s imagination gave up the real Hartley and consoled itself with high abstract ideas of blindly ‘accepting it all’.”

Vocabulary build-up

The adverb surreptitiously means “in a surreptitious manner.” The adjective surreptitious means “Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means.”

The noun cunning means “skill in deception; guile; skill or adeptness in execution or performance; dexterity.”

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In the final week of our Women’s History Month, we bring to you “The Sea, the Sea”, from Iris Murdoch, an Irish writer that is considered one of the best and most influential English writers of the 20th century. She appeared in the translation exercise of the 2022 CACD second phase, with one of her latest stories, “The Green Knight.” Before becoming a novelist, she studied classic literature, ancient history, and philosophy, a field in which she prolifically wrote as well. Her work can be viewed as a study regarding relationships between individuals, a creative space where her fictional dramas analyze specific situations on men’s ethics and morals. One could say that “The Sea, the Sea” is considered to be her best novel to date. Iris Murdoch turns her microscopic gaze on vanity and obsession in this novel, telling a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a playwright as he composes his memoirs. The plot is about Charles Arrowby, a leading light of England’s theatrical set, who retires from London to an isolated house by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, and to amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. But his plans fail, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of strange events and unexpected visitors - some real, some spectral - that disrupt his world and shake his oversized ego to its very core.