Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Metro
'this graceful novella offered a series of perfectly realised moments'

Guardian
'In its precision, scope and force, this is an astounding novel, more tender than anything McEwan has hitherto produced'

Waterstone's Books Quarterly
`slow, detailed prose... reads like a pale memory of a forgotten age... a writer in complete control of his craft'

Customer Reviews

Rushed
I agree with the reviewer who said that it was ridiculous to cram the final forty year of the protagonist's life into seven pages. Also, the poorly edited statement that the man's business was dwindling due to 'internet' shopping when the setting was only the early 80s was like a Ferrari driving across a Jane Austen film.
That said, although nothing really happens, the insights into both male and female interior lives during a relationship was powerful.
It was just too bad that McEwen seemed to suddenly get bored with his own work and rush through the denouement.

Beautifully written story about the expectations of marriage.
I found this a beautifully written story about Edward and Florence, two characters set in the fifites in England. The story begins at the start of their honey-moon and McEwan's comi-tragic prose equips the reader with the central character's expectations of their roles in marriage and general expectations of what a marriage was in the 1950s. The tightly controlled language easily reflects the sense of English restriction and politeness between lovers and partners that prevailed in that decade. The story progresses to a wonderfully described climax where McEwan's gift of presenting the comic with the tragic comes to the forefront. I recommend this quick-read for its sense of style and beautiful prose capturing two lives in a day on Chesil Beach.

Sexual innocence, longing and anxiety in a short, touching novel
In an age of sex being everywhere, media portrayals of everyone being sexual athletes and 'at it' all the time, this was a welcome novel of innocence, longing and anxiety about the 'first time.'

I was touched by this short novel and would read it again. I think McEwan writes about love sensitively and look forward to reading his other works.