The Sea, the Sea is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs. Played out against a vividly rendered landscape and filled with allusions to myth and magic, Murdoch's novel exposes the jumble of motivations that drive her characters - the human vanity, jealousy, and lack of compassion behind the disguises they present to the world. Charles Arrowby, its central figure, decides to withdraw from the world and dwell in seclusion in a house by the sea. Whilst there, by an extraordinary coincidence he encounters his first love, Mary Hartley Fitch, whom he has not seen since his love affair with her as an adolescent. Although she is almost unrecognisable in old age, and totally outside his theatrical world, he becomes obsessed by her, idealizing his former relationship with her and attempting to persuade her to elope with him. His inability to recognise the egotism and selfishness of his own romantic ideals is at the heart of the novel. After the farcical and abortive kidnapping of Mrs. Fitch by Arrowby, he is left to mull over her rejection in an enjoyably self-obsessional and self-aggrandising manner over the space of several chapters. "How much, I see as I look back, I read into it all, reading my own dream text and not looking at the reality... Yes of course I was in love with my own youth... Who is one's first love?"

《黑王子》是默多克后期小说中最受好评的一部，但也是最艰深的作品之一。小说遣词造句考究，语意隐晦幽深，哲理深邃，情节引人，还加上旁征博引，幽默调侃，象征比喻，称得上是一朵艺术的奇葩。不少评论家认为，它是20世纪英国文学的一部杰作。 小说讲述了五十八岁的作家布拉德利的故事。故事有三条情节线索：主线是布拉德利与好友阿诺尔德的二十岁女儿朱莉安的恋爱，一条副线是布拉德利与年轻作家阿诺尔德的交往及与其妻蕾切尔的感情纠葛，另一条副线是布拉德利不得不承担照顾饱受离婚打击的妹-妹的责任。三条线索交织，掀起无限风波。最后因阿诺尔德被自己的妻子、布拉德利的旧情人蕾切尔失手打死，布拉德利应蕾切尔请求去帮忙处理善后，无意中在扑克牌上留下指纹，导致自己锒铛入狱，冤死牢中。