The Message to the Planet [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Iris Murdoch (Author), Juliet Mills (Performer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

For years, Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar in the belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind. Luden's friends are more sceptical. Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy. Gildas herne, ex-preist, thinks he is evil. Patrick Fenman, poet is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him. Marcus has disappeared and must be found. But he is a genius, a hero struggling at the bounds of human knowledge. Is he seeking God, or is he just another victim of the Holocaust, which casts its shadow upon him and upon Ludens, both of them jewish? Can human thinking discover the foundations of human consciousness? Irish Murdoch's endlessly inventive imagination has touched a fundamental question of our time.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Murdoch ( The Book and the Brotherhood ) begins her 24th novel with a crisis. Three friends--Jack Shearwater, Alfred Ludens, Gildas Hearne--gather to grapple with the problem of Patrick Fenman, who is dying of an unknown disease. and Marcus Vallar, the one-time mathematical prodigy whose curse purportedly brought on the illness is tracked down and brought to Patrick's bedside, where he performs a laying-on of hands to amazing effect and becomes the center of a quiet religious movement. In this beautifully patterned work, Vallar is situated as well at the crux of a kaleidoscopic network of relationships; at the chic resort/asylum to which Vallar retreats, Ludens, Gildas, Jack, Jack's wife, Franca, his mistress, Alison, and Vallar's elusive daughter Irina are all drawn together in a whirl of emotions. They come to joy as well as grief when forced to confront the extremes of love and spiritual experience in the mystery Vallar's presence poses. Murdoch fans will be well pleased: as do her previous epistemological novels, the newest shows the transforming power of love while capturing life's small yet significant details, wherein a convenient parking space may come to mean nearly as much as an ostensible miracle. 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Mage or madman? Marcus Vallar was a brilliant mathematician who abandoned science, a gifted painter who walked away from art. Now confined to a mental home, he's sought out by bands of "Seekers" and "Stone People" who believe--on good evidence--that he's raised a man from the dead. But Marcus struggles in vain to frame a coherent message. It's as if, he says, "the gods were offering us, at the very last moment, a glimpse of . . . of . . . ." A disciple's explanation may come closer: "It's all together." Prolific British novelist Murdoch offers her most challenging work yet, an often droll metaphysical thriller for thoughtful readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/89.
- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: New Millennium Audio; Unabridged edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931056927
• ISBN-13: 978-1931056922
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.8 x 4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,250,876 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

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy and Love, April 13, 2000

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Message to the Planet (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I like this book at least as well as The Bell and the Sandcastle, and very possibly more.

One of the characters in this book asks where ordinary morality is, when what is called for in the world is the courage of a saint. Once again, Murdoch visits the question of the Good and how it applies to human life. This time the question centers around Marcus, who anchors the novel as a character from myth-- sometimes a saint, sometimes Prospero, sometimes a lunatic. Each of the other characters in the book have to find their way (through eccentric marriages, chaste romances, resurrections, and mysticism) in a world where all the familiar rules no longer apply. All the solutions (where there are solutions) are complicated and costly.

As usual, the writing is crisp and incisive, the characters well-formed and very complete. One of the great Murdoch novels.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, incisive novel, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Message to the Planet (Mass Market Paperback)

Although this is ostensibly a novel about a bizarre character's interaction with the world around him, what I took from it is a probing, insightful look by Murdoch at the question of what would it be like if Jesus appeared in present times....Her prose is dense and the book can be difficult at times, but the payoff is well worth the effort.

4.0 out of 5 stars well worth the effort, November 28, 2011

By 

Alex D. Vance (Cities of the Interior) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Message to the Planet (Mass Market Paperback)

Some might think that the title of this book is misleading. It is a later work and on a par with "the sea, the sea" and "the green knight". Many of her books have to do with relationships that change dramatically when a major character changes. "The Unicorn" is probably the book where this is the most obvious but "the message to the planet" develops this theme in a much more complex way. Also, in many of her books lots of people die. In some cases it's simply to hard to believe the casuality rate. It isn't the case in "the message to the planet". The book is a great example of Iris Murdoch at her best.