Blindness and betrayal are Elizabeth Taylor's great subjects, and in A
View of the Harbour she turns her unsparing gaze on the emotional and
sexual politics of a seedy seaside town that's been left behind by
modernity. Tory, recently divorced, depends more and more on the company
of her neighbors Robert, a doctor, and Beth, a busy author of
melodramatic novels. Prudence, Robert and Beth's daughter, disapproves
of the intimacy that has grown between her parents and Tory and the
gossip it has awakened in their little community. As the novel proceeds,
Taylor's view widens to take in a range of characters from bawdy, nosey
Mrs. Bracey; to a widowed young proprietor of the local waxworks, Lily
Wilson; to the would-be artist Bertram--while the book as a whole offers
a beautifully observed and written examination of the fictions around
which we construct our lives and manage our losses.