The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (Penguin Books) [Paperback]

Iris Murdoch (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Books | Publication Date: March 6, 1984

A writer of detective fiction who has not recovered from the loss of his wife becomes involved in the life of a neighbor's family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 6, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140041117
• ISBN-13: 978-0140041118
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,032,593 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

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murdoch on love and betrayal, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (Penguin Books) (Paperback)

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine describes the spectacular unravelling of two families at the hands of Blaise Gavender. The first family is his own "legitimate" one, comprising his wife Harriet and son David. The other is his lover Emily and their son Luca. A weary and cynical novelist,the newly widowed Montague Small, is the unwilling observer and intermediary of this melange. We see a recurring exploration of the meaning of love when the faults of the lovers suddenly become overwhelming and the only options are forgiveness or alienation.As in her other books, Murdoch's characters are complex, their motivations tangled by alternating emotional currents of elation, despair, and futility.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkly comic delight!, November 28, 2010

By 

Geek-Lover - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (Penguin Books) (Paperback)

I'd first read Murdoch's "The Sea, The Sea" and was already a fan of her work. My second selection was the provocatively titled "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine". This is a darkly comic, somewhat fanciful story about what occurs when a charlatan of an analyst is 'outed' for his double-life with two families. One family, his traditional, stable and 'respectable' professional family- the other an erotically charged but since-gone-stale relationship with a woman from a less fortunate background and pathetically poor and terminally envious of his 'other' life. The cuckolded wife is perhaps the most comic character in the novel as she futilely tries to control the situation. In Murdoch's standard style- she has rendered a rich cast of well-developed characters who are each imperfect in their own unique ways. This book is a wild ride of a read that does not disappoint- I was left panting with exhileration as the novel came to a close and I was released from this captivating tale!

17 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent novel, August 7, 1999

By 

Richard (Neuilly, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (Penguin Books) (Paperback)

Iris Murdoch's books aren't for everyone: they are for sensitive, intellectual, and introspective readers. I read this one a few months ago, and was very impressed with the quality of the writing, the complexity of the characters' personalities, and the pervasive exploration of their different viewpoints and feelings as the story unfolds. Not only is this book intelligent and insightful, it is also entertaining, and never slow-going. My only criticism concerns the two somewhat "fabulous" accidents which take place near the end. An excellent novel nevertheless.