Ten of the best swimming scenes in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best swimming scenes in literature.

One title on the list:

The Sea by John Banville

Narrator Max Morden recalls a seaside holiday from childhood, including the best description I know of the absurd swimming styles of one's parents. His mother wallows in a soupy lagoon with "small, mistrustful pleasure"; his father goes "at a sort of hindered, horizontal scramble with mechanical strokes and a gasping sideways grimace and one starting eye". But swimming will also lead to a very bad ending ...

Read about the other nine swimming scenes on Mullan's list.

--Marshal Zeringue