staring to sea

[constantinusphilo]

He was silent; I could just make out his face, his staring to sea, as if Neuve
Chapelle was out there, gray mud and hell, visible.
This is another sentence from The Magus by John Fowles. How many grammatical errors can you find here? I can find at least two: 1) instead of saying 'I could just make out his face staring at the sea' he writes 'his staring to sea', skipping an article before 'sea'. Next, 'as if NCh was out there', instead 'were'.

 

[teechar]

1) instead of saying 'I could just make out his face staring at the sea' he writes 'his staring to sea', skipping an article before 'sea'.

No. That's not a mistake. Take a look at the explanation of "(out) to sea" in the following link.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/to-sea-out-to-sea

Next, 'as if Neuve Chapelle was out there', instead 'were'.

It could be a case of literary license. Perhaps the author intentionally used "was" to make the sentence less unreal.

In future, please edit your posts to ensure there are no accidental line breaks. In the above, I thought the line starting with "Chapelle" was a new sentence!

 

[Tdol]

Many speakers use was instead of were. I am honestly a bit surprised that Fowles does, but it is something you hear frequently.

 

[Rover_KE]

constantinusphilo, you don't appear to have found the Thank button yet.

It's in the bottom left-hand corner of every post except your own. Just click on that to thank the writer for their help, and you don't need to write a thank-you post.

It saves everybody's time.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Once again, I see no errors. Between Fowles and his editors, it's highly unlikely that there are any. More likely, you'll find phrasing and usage you're not familiar with.