The Black Prince - Iris Murdoch

45%
05.01.05




Oh, tedious, tedious, farcical and pretentious. Too many words, without enough accuracy. Too much self-indulgence, apparently by the narrator but actually by the author. I only finished it so that I could give it a low score.

The Unicorn - Iris Murdoch

63%
24.01.04




Murdoch seems uniquely talented in her ability to animate landscapes, to sustain metaphors, to show how personality is something constructed by other people. If only her novels weren't all so similar - an outsider enters an isolated community, people swim, the plot is enacted mainly through emotion until someone dies near the end. There is a sense that Murdoch is lazily plagiarising herself, making the experience of reading her novels strangely unsatisfying. Marks gained for elegance; marks lost for tedium.

The Bell - Iris Murdoch

75%
18.10.03




This, on the other hand, is how a novel ought to be. Wise, funny, meticulously constructed, and with obsessively realised characters, convincingly inconsistent in their thoughts and behaviour. Dated only in the sense that most modern writers wouldn't dare to tackle issues of religion and sexuality in this way.

The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch

75%
31.01.03




It might be too long, it might be too stodgy, it definitely could have done with some editorial pruning, but it's a relief to read such a complex and fascinating novel that leaves me itching to write an analytical essay about it - quite a feat. The central character is cleverly drawn, and as he descends into arrogant self-delusion, this initially plotless novel becomes a page-turner, full of suspense and humour. Once accessed, it's far more accessible than I'd expected.