A View of the Harbour is a novel by Elizabeth Taylor. First published in 1947 in England and the United States, it was her third novel. It is the first of her novels in which one of the main characters is a creative artist. The relationship of the artist to society and other people was to be an important theme in Taylor's subsequent work. The narrative, which is set in a postwar English seaside town, is told from the points of view of several characters. The story involves an abortive love affair between the husband of Beth, a novelist, and her best friend and next door neighbour, as well as the comings and goings of Bertram, a retired naval officer who has come to town intending to take up painting. The novel was favourably reviewed when first published, and has been reissued in the 2010s in the Virago Modern Classics and NYRB Classics series. Plot The novel is set in a fictional English seaside town soon after the end of World War II. Several characters' points of view alternate in the narration. The story begins with the arrival of Bertram Hemingway, a retired naval officer and amateur painter who soon becomes acquainted with most of the other protagonists. These include Beth Cazabon, a novelist, her husband Robert, the town doctor, and Beth's best friend and next door neighbour Tory Foyle. Robert and Tory, a divorcée, are secretly in love with each other. The Cazabons have two daughters: a little girl named Stevie, and Prudence, who has finished school and is living at home. Prudence eventually learns of the relationship between her father and her mother's friend, but does not tell anyone. However, Tory and Robert know they have been discovered. Other characters include Mrs. Bracey, a widowed invalid, and her two adult daughters. Mrs. Bracey spends her time watching the view from her window and speculating on the behaviour of the townspeople. She is a patient of Robert Cazabon and is visited by Bertram Hemingway, who enjoys listening to her gossip. When she develops pneumonia Bertram takes turns with her daughters sitting with her, and is present when she dies. Bertram also briefly befriends Lily Wilson, a young war widow who owns a waxworks exhibition. He meets her at the pub where he is lodging and gets into the habit of walking her home in the evenings. Lonely and depressed,