A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) [Paperback]

Iris Murdoch (Author), Peter Reed (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001 | Series: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics

In a dark comedy of errors, Iris Murdoch portrays the mischief wrought by Julius, a cynical intellectual who decides to demonstrate through a Machiavellian experiment how easily loving couples, caring friends, and devoted siblings can betray their loyalties. As puppet master, Julius artfully plays on the human tendency to embrace drama and intrigue and to prefer the distraction of confrontations to the difficult effort of communicating openly and honestly.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) taught philosophy at Oxford for many years. She is the author of 26 novels, and also wrote several works of philosophy, criticism, and drama.

Peter Reed is Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Minnesota.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141186178
• ISBN-13: 978-0141186177
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919 of Anglo-Irish parents. She went to Badminton School, Bristol, and read classics at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1948 she returned to Oxford where she became a fellow of St Anne's college.

Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Awarded the CBE in 1976, Iris Murdoch was made a DBE in the 1987 New Year's Honours List. She died in February 1999.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fairly Intense Exploration of Love, March 8, 2001

By 

Lauren Bielski (Long Island City, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Paperback)

I first became a Murdoch fanatic in my 20s, and would gobble up her books like Oreo cookies. At the time I was dazzled: nobody wrote like her, with precise descriptions of physical and psychological terrain alike. Nobody made me laugh with delight with descriptions that were comic without being mean spirited. (I'm hard pressed to find a writer as brilliant.) In the past, I recommended this book to others with rave reviews-all the while certain that I had a lock on what it "meant." The characters alone are a hoot: You've got the Machivellian Julius, the sassy but silly Morgan, the calm but fuzzily ineffective Tallis. But there's also Rupert-whose writing a tome about philosophy and seeks to enlighten others. Add to that Simon, his gay brother, Hilda, Rupert's loving, slightly plump and aging wife. We don't really see her interior at all, and yet we know her, a droll, sweet and self-satisfied woman, and one who is about to face the shock of her life. The great characters and qualities that make ALL her books amazing are especially evident in this novel, with its sparkling wit, bold situations, and dryly humorous dialogue. Just to give you a taste, in one chapter, a character's clothing gets cut to shreds by an opponent,who leaves his foe literally naked and defenseless. Magically, this "scene" works and seems entirely believable. Few writers can pull that off. On a more serious note, "A Fairly Honorable Defeat" was always my favorite because of what it had to say about loving someone (e.g., truly noticing another and acting in their interest along with your own) vs. "using" them for whatever reason or out of whatever weakness. What it has to say beyond that, I'm not entirely sure. Not that a lack of knowing interferes with the pleasure of reading. Besides, Murdoch the story teller is saying something different than any of the pompous things that come out of the mouths of MOST of her characters. All I have to say is, in this one, don't underestimate Tallis. Happy reading.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murdoch's monster, September 15, 2002

By 

JAMES E. MADDUX (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

Iris Murdoch's novels are addictive. Since a friend gave me a copy of "The Bell" a few months ago, I've read almost nothing but Murdoch--11 novels in all. In fact, I checked out six at one time from my university library so as soon as I finished one I could start on another. I've become a chain-reader. This one may be the best one so far. It's certainly the most chilling, if not the most riveting. It's a good place to start for the uninitiated because it's so incredibly engaging and entertaining, althougt not necessarily fun. All of the basic Murdoch elements are there--the complexity of love and life; the overwhelming essentialness of love to life; the frailties, faults, and follies of basically good people; the way the lives of good people can be wrecked by both their own carelessness and by intentional acts of evil; and despite all of this, an odd optimism that life is good and that all will be well. ... Julius is even more frightening, however, because you will recognize in him someone you know or have known. Although there are no monsters, ghosts, or serial killers, the book is as suspensful as any of the popular horror or crime novel that routinely makes the bestseller lists today. And no "romance" writer alive knows more about love and sex than Murdoch. I always finish Murdoch's books feeling unsettled but strangely satisfied and always awestruck by what she is able to do with plot, characters, ideas, and words. Put down your Stephen King, your John Grisham, or your Danielle Steel and pick up this book instead.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FAIRLY BRILLIANT NOVEL, September 4, 2002

By 

doktorlehar "doktorlehar" (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

The scene is London, c. 1970, set among a group of friends and family members in a fashionable London suburb. They are urbane, intelligent, intriguing people who have their share of quirks, obsessions, and blind spots. There's Rupert and Hilda, the blissfully happy married couple; Hilda's sister Morgan, a fun-loving academic undergoing a midlife crisis; her estranged husband Tallis, an eccentric caring for his dying father; Rupert's brother Simon, in a loving yet stifling relationship with a man named Axel; and Rupert and Hilda's son Peter, a delinquent, aimless college dropout. Although filled with concerns, their lives are basically stable until the appearance of Julius King, an old acquaintance who sets upon them with the goal of destroying their lives. He does this to prove a point: that human beings are inherently distrustful, inconstant, and easily manipulated. He further wishes to demonstrate that suspicion can be induced with the slighest, subtlest insinuations, and that people are perfectly prepared to believe ill-conceived rumors over reliable knowledge. In a remarkably brief time Julius unravels these people's lives and replaces their love and trust with cynicism and despair.

Mudroch's novel suggests that certain people induce evil for pleasure, and further that the society we live in breeds such behavior. Unfortunately, she's probably right. Julius has great fun manipulating the puppets he plays with, that is, until they remember that they're not puppets but real people with their own consciousness and choice. As always, Murdoch's prose is expert and often gorgeous, her pacing measured, her characters fully realized and oddly plausible. At its beginning the novel reads like a late 60s sex comedy and seems light, almost giddy, compared to some of her other work. But she very gradually alters the novel's tone so that its true horror sneaks up on you. Murdoch spares no detail in conveying her characters' emotional deterioration, and it's more chilling, I think, than anything Stephen King ever devised. There's substantial hope at the novel's end, but getting there is a deeply unsettling process.

Finally, this is a book about relationships, one of which happens to be gay. Murdoch doesn't make much fuss about Axel and Simon being men, although their homosexuality isn't trivialized, either. In giving them equal status with the novel's heterosexual couples Murdoch accords more dignity to gay men and their lives than do the authors of many gay-themed novels, which this really isn't. The result is heartening and inspiring.

Very strongly recommended.