The Philosopher's Pupil

The philosopher's Pupil was the first Murdoch novel I read. It will always stand for me as her best. What a shock! It starts with the best couple argument I've ever read (insight, humor, cruelity, style) and finishes with a perfect ending. You will find here Murdoch at her best: close and opressive ambients sudenly moved by a new and powerful presence, water all over the place, sex as salvation, philophical arguments, high minded personalities, women earth and men demons, victims, wolfes, all her imaginary to create a perfect moral tale about love, family and getting old. It is always a pleasure to read Iris Murdoch, but The philosopher's pupil, for me, outstands her other novels. A jewel between good jobs.

This is a brilliant, consuming, sweeping panorama or a work--that surprisingly seems yet to get its full due, whereas many of Murdoch's earlier, shorter (and lesser) novels enjoy rave reviews, large sales, "classic" status, and theatrical adaptations.Yet it's a masterpiece on a multiplicity of levels, and as Mahler once said of *his* more "difficult" work, "[Its] time will yet come." I wouldn't recommend this to someone who has naver read Murdoch--but, if you've read and enjoyed *The Black Prince* or *The Sea, The Sea*, for instance, make this your next selection.

This is the first time I read a work from Iris Murdoch. Years ago I read one of her earlier books and was not impressed, but after years of living and reading I decided to try her again. Well - I'm hooked. Murdoch describes her characters in a most detailed way with their human foibles, and their small town gossip The scenes at the sea side are marvellous. This writer knows how to evoke atmosphere, how to create believable characters who are flawed and still so (humanly) endearing. Her style is simple and without pretense - she introduces all the characters before she even starts her story. I delighted in the narrator `N' who butts in every once in a while and who is just as small-town minded and slightly smug) as his characters. When Murdoch ends the book she ties up the many loose ends and gives credit where credit is due, you discover that most of the characters know `N', which, in a way, makes sense as he/she is, after all, their creator.My complaint is that the book is too long. Like the previous reviewer I feel it should have been shortened. I simply began to skip the philosophical passages in the last part of the book, but I want to come back to them at a later date, as I enjoyed these passages the most. [Sorry, I'm not a reviewer at all - simply can offer my feelings about this book.]

Dame Murdoch convincingly creates a rich world within the fictional English spa village of Ennistone. The sweep of characters and allusions, historical, literary and philosophical, are impressive. In typical Murdoch fashion, the action revolves around an anti-social genius, in this case the philosopher, Rozanov. His famed intellect is more than offset but his petty cruelty and utter alienation from human society. His wretched ex-pupil, George, is his drunken disciple, repeatedly spurned by the "great man." The various sub-plots, involving Quakers, an homo-sexual Anglican priest, half-Gypsy maid-servants, a swimming lap-dog, and Rozanov's absurdly innocent and estranged grand-daughter, all illustrate various human foibles. All of the mere mortals want different things from the philosopher, but he is an empty man. All brain, no heart, except for his incestuous lust for his grand-daughter. I greatly preferred " A Fairly Honourable Defeat," and "The Sea, the Sea," as examples of the author weaving her tapestry of human frailty, self-deception, and morality. And at 700 pages, I wonder if a bit of judicious editing would not have kept things more interesting. A staggering and erudite achievement, nonetheless. Murdoch attempts more in a single paragraph than many authors achieve in a lifetime.