On Chesil Beach

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2007
Edition: First Edition

Description: 166 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: A short novel of quite remarkable depth, power and poignancy by a writer at the height of his powers. It is June 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come… ON CHESIL BEACH is another masterwork from Ian McEwan – a story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken. Reading Group Book Questions ‘This is how the course of an entire life can be changed – by doing nothing.’ Discuss the themes of miscommunication, unfulfilled expectations and pride. Are Edward and Florence products of their upbringing Discuss Edward’s ability to ignore the blatant truth about his mother for so long and Florence’s inability to show physical affection to her parents. What role do these traits play in Edward and Florence’s relationship Social norms and conventions both aid and hinder the young couple’s communication. Discuss how these norms prevent the two from ever truly knowing each other. ‘This was still the era – it would end later in that famous decade – when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.’ Discuss how attitudes to youth and to love have changed. Edward is unable to discuss the truth about his mother openly and lives in a world of make believe. Is this a fatal character flaw, or an efficient survival mechanism How does this influence Edward’s attitude to Florence at the end of the story About The Author Ian McEwans last novel, Amsterdam, won the 1998 Booker Prize. He lives in Oxford.

ISBN: 9780224081184