On Chesil Beach

By Ian McEwan

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement brilliantly illuminates the collision of sexual longing, deep-seated fears, and romantic fantasy on a young couple’s wedding night.

“No one now writing in English surpasses or even matches McEwan's accomplishment." —The Washington Post Book World

It is 1962, and Florence and Edward are celebrating their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties become overwhelming. Unbeknownst to them both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates in On Chesil Beach a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 10, 2008
• ISBN: 9780307455826

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan (Aldershot, Reino Unido, 1948) se licenció en Literatura Inglesa en la Universidad de Sussex y es uno de los miembros más destacados de su muy brillante generación. En Anagrama se han publicado sus dos libros de relatos, Primer amor, últimos ritos (Premio Somerset Maugham) y Entre las sábanas, las novelas El placer del viajero, Niños en el tiempo (Premio Whitbread y Premio Fémina), El inocente, Los perros negros, Amor perdurable, Amsterdam (Premio Booker), Expiación (que ha obtenido, entre otros premios, el WH Smith Literary Award, el People’s Booker y el Commonwealth Eurasia), Sábado (Premio James Tait Black), En las nubes, Chesil Beach (National Book Award), Solar (Premio Wodehouse), Operación Dulce, La ley del menor, Cáscara de nuez, Máquinas como yo, La cucaracha y Lecciones y el breve ensayo El espacio de la imaginación. McEwan ha sido galardonado con el Premio Shakespeare. Foto © Maria Teresa Slanzi.

Reviews for On Chesil Beach

[cather00 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

If there was a half star, I'd give that. I had high hopes for this book. It started out OK, but just fizzled. I had no sympathy or empathy for the characters or their history before their wedding night. Neither of them were likable, nor interesting.

Considering how short the book is, it took me a long time to finish. Had I not been reading it for the Spring Book Challenge, I would have put it down around page 50.

[angela.kingston · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Masterful writing about a very ordinary tragedy. Really impressive, moving stuff. Love your work Ian.

[imyril · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fine outing from McEwan - I keep forgetting how much I enjoy his prose. On Chesil Beach cross-cuts memories of childhood and courtship with the unfolding minutiae of a young couple's wedding night, building sympathy and poignancy from awkward start to explosive ending. Readers may wish to shake the couple until their teeth rattle, but as a snapshot of middle England at a point in time this is utterly believable. Masterly stuff

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In life, small moments hold the secrets of years, and one chance disaster or dream changes everything. Like Chesil Beach, our lives are built on pebbles stranded by chance.In Ian McEwan’s novel, the course of dreams has led to the wedding night of two characters who, like any married couple, might just as easily never have met. Each carries the secrets of their time—1960s, before the sexual revolution, when intimacy wasn’t talked about and fears were never expressed. The question arises promptly—how much control will those secrets, born of small moments, have over the future of love.Ian McEwan’s ability to slip into the mind of a woman’s wounded innocence drives one third of this tale, while his masterful depiction of man’s balancing act between action and emotion drives another. But a third story slips between the lines, extending what could be a simple story of the 60s into a novel for all times. Those secrets we keep, those moments that break, those hurts that are secret until the right time which, being a moment itself, might never arise...Are there dark things untold in this novel? That’s for the reader to guess. Certainly sexual details are proffered with surprising detail and intimate compassion. But there’s always a sense of more, guessed at but never expressed. And if life’s unknowns are poured into music by the end, perhaps it’s the song of the waves on Chesil Beach.Disclosure: A friend didn’t particularly enjoy this novel so she gave it to me and I loved it.

[cjservis · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Didn't keep my interest. I skimmed and skipped my way through. Only read about 50% of this book.

[gpaisley_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love how Ian writes. He is so effortlessly descriptive. For a book that really tells the story of events of just 2 people in 2 hours, it feels much deeper than that.
As with many McEwan stories, it is, well....um, distinctive. Not one you will soon forget.

I'm not sure I can say I recommend it, but if you like McEwan, it is definitely worth a read.

[hereandthere_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Can you believe that people were once like this? That they did not know how to communicate about their feelings and their desires? How, you might ask, is it possible that such people as these "English" of the "early 1960s" once roamed the earth, speaking of love, yet terrified of lust, or busily lusting but unable to connect the world of lust to the world of simple communication?

I know. I am being too elliptical, but children are also listening. Really, children, you should not be reading this review or this book.

In On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan meditates on the cultural context in which these pathologies of communicative incapacity and un-desire are situated (early 1960s, England). He makes the story of a meeting between ignorant undesire and ignorant lust into little microcosm that stands in for the stale beating heart of its time and place. It's all so very English, and in fact I was reminded of nothing so much as Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, which in its way wrestles with what seems to be the very same uptight Englishness.

McEwan's approach to sex, bad sex, sex that takes forever to happen, and then happens in a way that pleases no one, is almost clinical. We observe the inner thoughts and cautious advances and retreats in hyper-slow motion. It is all very interesting. Perhaps in some ways it resembles many people's first encounter with sexuality. Unfortunately, in the world of Chesil Beach, the first time was intended to be the last person.

Me, I just wanted to shake the two protagonists and fix them all up with some good talk therapy. So did McEwan, I would wager, as he allows in the end that the two protagonists were just a few unspoken sentences from sorting out their troubles and going on to a happy life together. The world changing potential of unvoiced thoughts is in itself perhaps the true theme here. But for the smallest conversational gesture, but for a withheld angry outburst, these lives (and how many others?) might have taken completely different paths.

Here's the sociological reality that I see. This marriage took place before the code of virginity, with its expectations of innocence on the wedding night, had dissolved, but just as a larger culture of freedom beckoned and family coercive power weakened. There was no coercive family to hold the couple together after the culturally imposed ignorance and innocence led to an unpleasant experience. It was, already in the early 1960s, possible to simply walk away. Earlier there would have been no walking. Later there would have been less ignorance (either of the clinical kind, or of the interpersonal kind). But here, at this moment the code of virginal innocence was still in place, but the social structures that would hold a relationship together when the emotional effects of sexual ignorance would be experienced... those were melting away. I found McEwan's novella an enjoyable report, or an act of imagination, from that moment of cultural transition.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

McEwan has written another beautiful but grim reflection on marriage, sex and the relationships between women and men, with a touch of class tension. his plot basically follows a newly wed couple through the first, and only, night of their honeymoon. The plot unfolds with relentless logic based on the characters and histories McEwan creates but I can't say there is either a happy ending or even a glimmer of comfort here.

[nyiper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The audio version is terrific because 1) Ian McEwan is the reader and 2) there is an author interview at the end which adds some dimensions to this short novel.

[dalzan_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In July, 1962, Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting, young people deeply in love and of drastically different backgrounds (he's the son of a schoolmaster and a brain-damaged woman, whereas she is the musically gifted daughter of a wealthy industrialist and an Oxford philosophy lecturer), have just been married and are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore. During the course of their first evening together as a married couple, both reflect upon their upbringing and the prospect of their futures. Edward is sexually motivated and though intelligent has a taste for rash behavior and Florence, bound by the social code of another era, 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.A very short but intense novel.

[maryreinert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was so disappointed in Saturday that I didn't read this until a friend gave it to me. Wow, am I glad she did.I found this to be McEwan's best. It is short, intense, and clearly demonstrates that sex is more in the brain than in the body. No need to repeat the story; this is a sad tale of two people who lack the confidence to be honest with themselves and each other -- not an unknown quality in many of us.I did find it somewhat surprising that the book was set in the 60's; not the 60's I remember even in small town repressed middle America. However, not everyone is at the same place at the same time. Their families and their upbringing truly made them who they were especially for Florence who apparently had some sort of shameful encounter with her father. There is probably somebody with the same repressed feelings even today when almost anything seems fair game for public discussion.I loved this book; it is sad, intense, and provides a narrow peak into the deepest experiences of two people who had the ability to love but didn't have the ability forgive themselves and each other.

[timbazzett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

ON CHESIL BEACH is very English. That was my first thought. It's also quite sad, although, here and there, almost unintentionally funny. The story concerns, mostly, a single day, and only part of the day, at that. It's the honeymoon afternoon, evening and night of Florence and Edward, who think themselves to be so very much in love. But Florence finds the sex act repulsive to the point of being unbearable. This is a story about class and education, but most of all about a total lack of communication, rife with mixed and missed signals and tragic misunderstandings, between a man and a woman. It's about ignorance and heartbreak. One thinks of the sixties as a time of sexual freedom and enjoyment. Not so with poor Ed and Flo; they were just a bit too early, War Babies, not Boomers, and uptight British ones at that.I know the author has had many bestsellers. I tried once to read ATONEMENT, but never finished it. This book I made it through, despite its dreariness and sad subject. But then it's barely two hundred short pages. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it or not. I need to think on it. (Which is probably not much of a recommendation.)

[bettyandboo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On Chesil Beach is an incredibly poignant and sad story about a young couple on their wedding night who bring all their fears and apprehensions to the honeymoon suite. Initially, this seems to be a simplistic tale, but as the reader (or, in my case, the listener) gets drawn into the story, it's impossible not to be caught up in the complexities of Edward and Florence's unspoken emotions.

The novel takes place over just three hours, but that's plenty of time to lead the couple to a life-changing conclusion. This is a story about the consequences of things left unsaid and how such silences have the power to alter the course of one's life. It's a fascinating premise, this idea that the slightest decision can change things forever. I enjoyed this story and as an audiobook, it works well - especially with McEwan himself as the narrator. I particularly like when the author narrates his or her own work. Doing so allows the listener to get caught up in the author's enthusiasm and emotion. At the end of the audiobook is an interview with McEwan about the story, which is enjoyable to listen to also.

[anneearney · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

More of a novella than a novel, the story covers primarily one night, the wedding night of Florence and Edward, a couple well-matched except for one thing, and this one problem is what propels the story forward. The history of the two characters, their childhoods, how they met, what their backgrounds are like, are explored in back story and help explain the present problem. The story continues on after the one night that is the focus, giving the book a sense of closure that I'm still not sure I appreciated. The overall effect, though, is light and poignant, not thought-provoking material of Atonement or even Saturday. I read most of the book in one stretch, and while parts of the story linger with me, overall I wasn't impressed. The characters are likeable and I found myself wishing I could help them, and at the same time glad I wasn't going through what they were going through, but I wanted to feel more than I did.

[carissa.green · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to imagine McEwan writing a bad book, and this one is very fine, but it does not get my most superlative rating for one reason: the balance between the two characters in terms of storytelling does not match in emotional payoff. This is the story of the wedding night of Florence and Edward, two misfits who overcome class differences to marry at the beginning of the 1960s - before they were "the '60s." The consummation of their relationship is the challenge and turning point on which their entire backstory becomes clear and their futures are hinged. Although McEwan splits most of the story fairly evenly between the two characters, by the end of the book, I sympathized entirely with Edward. He earned all of the pathos McEwan attempted to give him. With Florence, I felt nothing -- not anger, not pity, not sympathy -- although she probably deserved all of these, and McEwan is certainly talented enough to write them for her. Still, a tight, lyrical novella that held me as a reader. -cg

[palaverofbirds · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite things about McEwan is his ability to throw a twist in right at the end of his books to make you rethink all you read. At five books now you'd think I'd be ready for it, but I guess I just get absorbed in the stories.

Seems a lot of people don't like the book because it's just about "one thing/event." Completely untrue! There are two levels to the book: the story of the wedding night, which does take place over a span of a few hours; On Chesil Beach also tells the backstory of the two main characters, their families and even a little history of Britain. At 200 pages this book is dense.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I see everyone who's followed my reviews for a while sighing. Yes, yes, I tried it again with Ian McEwan. Well, we read the first few pages in my creative writing class, and everyone talked about how brilliant it was, and you know -- at least with this one, I can see it. The slow unfurling of detail, the perfect use of imagery, making the reader believe in this relationship enough to care about the disastrous wedding night...

It's a little funny how the book talks about how they were just on the cusp of a sexual revolution, with the implication that they might have saved their relationship if only... But I think it could still happen -- just younger, and not necessarily within matrimony.

[denina_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Main problem with this book for me was that I did not like Edward's character, which led to almost complete indifference to his past or anything McEwan wrote about him. Half through the book I almost quit reading it, but I'm glad I finished it. The climax was great, a brilliant description of people's fears and anxieties, and how pride, anger and shame can make you say things you don't really mean. And also, how this can affect your life, permanently.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This short book is a wonderful glimpse into couple relationships, the misunderstandings, the compromises, the patterns in communication. If anything it is too close to reality and may make the reader uncomfortable from the unveiling of such intimate emotions. A real gem.

[miss7owl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hadn't heard great things about this book but I really liked it. The way McEwan is able to unravel a whole history from just a single moment in time is fascinating - I always get the sense that his characters come, fully formed, to the page, and that they have a life that is lived behind and beyond it.Not having been alive in the particular decade of the setting - the events take place in 1962 - I must say I'm at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to assessing the authenticity of the era. It certainly didn't match up with my idea of the sixties (although that, I suppose, is part of McEwan's point). But I did really like the motif of Chesil Beach - it reminds me of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach", one of my favourite poems. And, like the other McEwan books I have read and loved, it just leaves me thinking - of moments, and memories, and the hindsight with which, unwittingly, we realise just which of the fallible, fleeting decisions we have made in life are the most important.

[fyrefly98 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: It's 1962, and Florence and Edward have just gotten married, and are on their honeymoon. Both are virgins, both are unsure about what happens next, both have wildly divergent opinions about sex (Edward being eager; Florence being totally disinterested and disgusted, but still feeling a sense of obligation). Neither of them, however, is able to communicate their feelings about the matter to the other, and so their wedding night quickly spirals further and further into awkwardness, isolation, and unhappiness.Review: I'm having a hard time reviewing this book. On the one hand, I understand that it was meant to be more of a literary exercise, and on technical grounds, it succeeds wonderfully - it's elegantly crafted and flawlessly written. On the other hand, I didn't particularly enjoy listening to it, in large part because I wasn't in the mood for "literary exercise" - I wanted a story. It's also very hard to enjoy a story when you find both characters to be obnoxious twits who you just want to shake by the shoulders while yelling "Just TALK TO HIM/HER, already, GOD!" And yes, I get that the fact that they couldn't talk to each other was kind of the point of the book, but that didn't stop it from being annoying. The resultant awkwardness was certainly recognizable (how often do we really talk totally openly about sex, even nowadays?), and familiar enough to make reading about it uncomfortable. While literature that makes you uncomfortable certainly has its place, and there are certainly tons of folks out there who can and do appreciate this book for its meditative musings and meticulous tone, it just wasn't what I wanted to be listening to. 2.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: I can recommend this book for aspiring writers as an excellent look at the process of crafting story, scene, characters and conflict. For someone who's just looking to get lost in an enjoyable read, however, they'd be best served looking elsewhere.

[stromata_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A haunting story. Much publicity about the unconsumed passions on a failed wedding-night, however this could be a tale about any aspect of a relationship that goes wrong - a kindness not done; words said or not said; pride....... So deeply affecting is this book that I cannot attend a concert at the Wigmore Hall without scouting around at the faces of the rest of the audience, just in case Edward turns up tonight.

[theanalogdivide · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Some time after I finished the book, it occurred to me that its plot pretty closely mirrors that of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi." McEwan may have thought he threw us off the scent by juggling the roles around, but I wasn't fooled. No siree.

[satyridae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very well-written examination of what happens when two people who love each other very much fail to communicate. Excruciating and claustrophobic and horribly sad and exquisitely harrowing. I don't think I liked it at all. I certainly loathed the characters, even as I felt sorry for them.

I have no idea how to assign stars- 4 stars for quality of writing, -3 stars for having to be in the bedroom with these two clowns. I'll compromise with 3.

I really loved the interview with the author on the last CD.

[redsy10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully written story about a romance, the lack of communication, the fears and joys of a young man and young woman who can't talk to one another.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book for its crisp, singular focus, and for its insights into the the very different perspectives a man and a woman can have about love and sex. It rang as true for me throughout. I also loved the perspective that came with time in the final chapter, and the illustration that lives change dramatically in single critical instants of action or non-action. Sentimental but in a haunting, beautiful way."Occasionally, he would come to a forking of the paths deep in a beech wood and idly think that this was where she must have paused to consult her map that morning in August, and he would imagine her vividly, only a few feet and forty years away, intent on finding him. Or he would pause by a view over the Stonor Valley and wonder whether this was where she stopped to eat her orange. At last he could admit to himself that he had never met anyone he loved so much..."

[miriamparker_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Initially, I was disappointed that I had read the opening chapter of this very short book in The New Yorker, but it was a kind of pleasure to re-read it and to be back in the presence of a really, really good writer. I thought the simple plot structure was really pleasurable and even though I thought the kind of fast forward epilogue-ish ending was disappointing, I really liked reading this. I hear that some think that the female character was too stereotypical, but I think the historical nature of the book made that okay for me (I didn't even notice it). I thought it was quite good.

[bethanydhart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The brevity of this haunting novel truly lends to McEwan's singular focus. The heartbreak found in the place where communication cannot exist proved sympathetic and profound.

[hennis_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written story about two lovers, their histories, families, work, interests.. culminating into their disastreous marriage night. How common misunderstanding can spoil so much.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a bit stylized for my taste, but not so much as some of McEwan's other work. It was also very simple, but not a bad escape. The writing is elegant, which helps. In general, this is one of those books that just doesn't leave much of an impression. The characters aren't particularly likable, and I'd say that at times they're simply unbelievable. In the end, I wouldn't Not recommend this book, but I also wouldn't recommend it. McEwan seems to be one of those polarizing figures, and my inclination is to say that he is at times just trying too hard to be literary. I didn't see this inclination coming across so much here as in some of his other work, but I still feel that some parts are overdone while other aspects just aren't given enough development or time.