THE GOOD APPRENTICE. [Hardcover]

Iris: Murdoch (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Prentice-Hall, (2000)
• ASIN: B000NWXL1A
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars murdoch's genius, December 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Hardcover)

This is one of the three superb long novels Murdoch published in the second half of the 80s. The characters are brilliantly drawn, especially the psychiatrist Thomas, his friend the ambitious, talented but frustrated Harry Cuno, and Harry's son Stuart, the good apprentice of the title. Underneath the typical Murdochian plot twists, the novel tackles profound themes, including depression and mental illness, guilt and forgiveness, and the impact of technology on human relations. The parts of the novel set in London are stronger than those set in the country. Her genius is fully on display here.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good intentions & the pursuit of happiness, January 13, 2003

By 

"jenniferbraun" (Santa Rosa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

What happens when loving intentions result in disastrous outcomes? Iris Murdoch's, The Good Apprentice, features gothic ancestral dwellings, a trio of eccentric women, peculiar, seedy London séances, modern psychiatry, upper-class contemporary love affairs and infidelity, intense family relationships and questing for worthy missions in order to justify individual lives. I didn't easily breeze through this book neither could I put it down. Murdoch's heavy philosophical background is excruciatingly evident. However, I knew I was in the hands of a great artist when I laughed out loud with delight in passages. I look forward to reading more of her writing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rich in pleasures, plot, and philosophy, July 25, 2005

By 

Miss Grimke (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

The Good Apprentice sucked me into reading Iris Murdoch about 20 years ago. I have since worked my way, with immense pleasure, through all her novels. I'm reading GA for the second time, and I find I have less patience now for the long philosophical soliloquies of the characters. But the novel reminds me how well Murdoch indulges her readers' love a good plot and richly imagined and deliciously flawed characters, all revolving around a Great Man, who may not be but probably is somewhat of a charlatan. Reading Murdoch is the best way I know to combine a love of philosophy--and excellent writing--with a hankering for soap opera. GA is a good place to start reading Murdoch (and come back to).