The unknown sea [RARE BOOKS]

The Unknown Sea is impressive for its suggestion of turbulent depths below the conventional surface of French life. The novel is set in the Bordeaux region at the start of the century.

A complex of relationships surrounded Oscar Revolou. the wealthy lawyer, with his mistress, his timid wife, his play-boy son, his factor the loyal, servile, and despised Landin, his farm manager, and his friends, the Costadots. The news of his failure and suicide sets off a slow chain of reactions- cruel, greedy, and tragic. Only his daughter, Rose, has the force to meet every test.

'He writes with an intense, almost a tempestuous force about the life of the emotions translated so excellently that one is never for a moment aware that one is reading a book which has been written in another language - Olivia Manning in the Spectator

'Fidelity is his enormous virtue as a novelist brilliant in its pattern, this novel discloses each character to the full' V. S. Pritchett