Jackson's Dilemma [Hardcover]

Iris Murdoch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996

In an intricately plotted psychological drama, a mysterious, charismatic English butler derails the marriage of his master, a young aristocrat, and his fiance+a7e, sending them both off on strange and dark paths. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The friends and relatives of Edward Lannion and Marian Fox are gathered at Hatting Hall in readiness for their wedding. On the night before the ceremony is to take place, however, Edward receives word that Marian cannot go through with it. Thus begins a search for the missing Marian that will significantly change the course of events. Although this is lighter than the usual fare served by Murdoch (The Green Knight, LJ 12/1/93), it still explores the big religious and philosophical questions. And as usual, there is a mysterious figure hovering at the periphery, quietly affecting the lives of all the players. In this case, it is a manservant called Jackson, who has insinuated himself into the lives of the main characters and who, while attending to their needs, has made himself indispensable. Although not quite up to Murdoch's usual standards, this romantic novel is recommended for literary collections.
-?Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

With 25 novels in the bank, Murdoch has decided to have fun, so her twenty-sixth is a romp as well as a homage to that master of convoluted comedy, Shakespeare. Murdoch has adopted a syncopated, slightly mocking tone, and many scenes have a distinctly theatrical air. She has also achieved a disarming sense of timelessness, due in part to the fact that her eccentric characters, a close-knit circle of friends, are extremely well-off and spend their days and nights dashing between their country estates and their London houses. They seem utterly free of responsibilities but quite burdened by tragic pasts and a great deal of remorse. The tale begins on the eve of a wedding. Edward of Hatting Hall is to marry the lovely Marian. Benet, his rather fussy and reclusive friend and neighbor, is in charge of the proceedings. He's also the one who finds Marian's hasty note calling the whole thing off. Everyone is thrown into a tizzy. As they all wait for further word and worry about suicide and abduction, we learn their painful secrets in scenes notable for their dramatic intensity. These dark interludes play in counterpoint to lighter moments as Murdoch treats us to a giddy series of felicitous surprises. But who is Jackson? He's a mysterious, Caliban-like fellow who works for Benet and is instrumental in transforming disaster into bliss. If Murdoch were to choose a Shakespearean title for this brilliant and charming novel, it would have to be All's Well That Ends Well. Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; Har/Cas edition (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670868159
• ISBN-13: 978-0670868155
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,745,657 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

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Puck and Ariel are hard at work., October 20, 2001

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jackson's Dilemma (Mass Market Paperback)

A perfectly Shakespearian comedy. Three, practically four, weddings like in As You Like It (four) or A Midsummer Night's Dream (three). The threads are so entangled that everyone is about to marry the wrong matches. Luckily some Puck-like Jackson appears in the picture and sets things right, with the help of a twelve-year-old boy.

Iris Mirdoch is quite apt at organizing sentimental suspense, bends and U-turns in the plotline, and at evoking the perverse atmosphere of a place where everything is wrong, the chaotic drama and then the cleansing of the mess and the thoroughly happy atmosphere of the crowning weddings.

Jackson comes from nowhere, has to go no one knows, not even him, where, and is there to sort out odd ends and unmatched couples. He brings the right ones to the right others, and he brings happiness.

But his alter ego is Benet, the wall-named, since his name means « dumb » or even « retarded » meaning late in historical time. He is the one who creates havoc by insisting on some totally wrong unions. This creates a new level of reading. The rich, the upper class, high society, are nothing but the psychiatric ward of the social hospital. They are all spaced out and corrugated, and their treatment comes from a guardian angel who makes them comb out straight their disorderly interlaced hairs.

The end is just mysterious but serene and it shifts from Jackson to the little boy who is understood as the naive Ariel of so many Shakespearian comedies. And we are at the beginning of a new stage, just like the sunshine breaks through after The Tempest.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Truth, June 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Jackson's Dilemma (Audio Cassette)

The truth is that this book is, while not bad, surely not as good as Murdoch can be. Of course, she was a victim of Alzheimer's, and this was was her last book. But it is important to warn readers to do a deep reading of the literary criticism given to the book. Critics, obviously aware of Murdoch's illness, wanted to be kind - she is a powerhouse of a genius after all. But the book, while engaging, takes a long time to become truly absorbing, and even then, the story's inconsistencies remain and are impossible to ignore. Nonetheless, Jackson's Dilemma is a good read, and I do genuinely appreciate it.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Awful End to a Great Career, March 7, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jackson's Dilemma (Mass Market Paperback)

Never read Murdoch before, and unfortunately this awful book doesn't seem like the place to have started either. After finishing it, I discovered she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's right after completing the manuscript-which goes a long way toward explaining how such an acclaimed author could produce such a monumentally uninteresting book. Another somewhat telling thing I discovered is that the reviewers of this book seem fairly evenly split between describing it as a comedy and describing it as a mystery, of which it is neither.

The rough gist of the book is that there is a circle of upper-class Brits who have become friends over the years, plus an enigmatic butler/manservant Jackson. One of the circle is to wed another, when complications arise, sending the whole group into a tizzy. Secret longings are revealed, secret pain and guilt expounded on, endless pontificating and empty philosophizing ensure. I suppose it's vaguely reminiscent of Austen, with various upper-class, and poor hanger-on's all repressing themselves until, in an orgy of Shakespearean homage, everyone gets duly paired off with the behind the scenes assistance of Jackson (can you say "Puck"?).

It sounds vaguely enjoyable, but it isn't. First of all, it's not funny in the slightest. Ever. Secondly, as a satire of the upper class it's halfhearted. Yes, they're all self-absorbed idiots in one way or another, requiring the practical blue-collar help of Jackson to put anything right. But it's a very gentle and loving satire, with no teeth whatsoever, and therefore fails to leave an impression. Thirdly, it's not suspenseful in the slightest. For there to be suspense, there must first exist characters that one cares about, and there are none here. There are some things to be curious about (what's Jackson's story), but nothing that is engaging on anything but the most superficial level. Finally, as writing, it's pretty bad. Given the tremendously stilted dialogue, and bizarre repetitions in some passages, one has to assume that Murdoch was beginning to lose the plot already and that no editor dared point out some of the obvious weaknesses.

Best to skip this and concentrate on her earlier work.