Customer Reviews

A Severed Head

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In "A Severed Head," Iris Murdoch takes the bedroom farce to a whole new level. It's a tangled tale of love, adultery, deception, self-deception, jealousy and attempted suicide, all rendered with deadpan humour and with just enough darkness lurking behind the scenes to make it even more interesting. Many of Murdoch's novels have a central character cast as the master manipulator, but here it's never clear who is manipulating whom. The portrayal of the ponderous, rather smug protagonist is a masterpiece of sly character assassination and the immortal Honor Klein is...well, you'll have to read the book to find out. Heartily recommended.

As an Iris Murdoch "junkie", I relish all of her works, and I'm still in the process of completing the list. My personal favorites have to be A Severed Head, The Sea, The Sea, Bruno's Dream and The Green Knight, so far. A Severed Head is particularly enjoyable because its plot is fast-moving and doesn't get sidetracked with lengthy philosophical or religious theory that is inherent in so many of her books. While I do enjoy examining these topics, it's also great just to get engrossed in a good story without having to think existentially, if you know what I mean. She has incredible talent as a novelist in developing characters, describing setting, developing plot and building suspense. She uses these gifts, combined with her great sense of humor, to bring her stories to an unanticipated climax, with an even more unexpected, and often happy, ending. She treats her readers as intellectual equals, which is a nice compliment, although I know I've come up short a few times -- particularly when one of her characters spouts off a phrase in a foreign language. It's the price you pay for good art, and I wouldn't change a thing. This book is a great jumping off point for new Iris Murdoch readers, who can then graduate to her lengthier, (and more philosophical) works later. Not many people can write like Iris Murdoch, and she is missed by many. Luckily, she left her legacy in her writings that we can all enjoy for many, many years to come.

Honor Klein is one of the most fascinating of all of Murdoch's memorable characters. Murdoch uses humor deftly in this novel weaving a web of enchantment that underlies the more serious discussions of sex, human responsibility and morality. I will never forget the the scene in the cellar between Honor and Martin, the ride from the train station and the hilarious and touching final scene are etched in my memory forever. I have read hundreds of "serious" novels in my life and The Severed Head has become my favorite. With her recent death we lost one of the worlds best writers.

This is my first foray into Iris Murdoch territory and I must say I am quite impressed. She writes with wit and vitality and there is much wisdom here also.

This story has to do with a group of people in contemporary (at least as of 1962, when the book was written), English aristocracy. They are all civilized and elegant and tasteful. The plot has to do with the various marital infidelities committed by each and every one of them, and their varying reactions to these discoveries.

The inclination of these people is to treat these things in a very civilized, low-key way. For example, there is an amusing scene in which the husband goes to get champagne to celebrate the announcement that his wife has found happiness by carrying on with . . . well, better not say too much. This emerges as an interesting theme. At want point does civility itself become immoral, when faced with immoral behavior? Must one continue to wear the famous vaunted, stoic, brave English face while inside one is churning with pain?

Well, one does if one recognizes that one is standing in the way of another's happiness. But what is happiness? Love? Perhaps, but another important theme of the novel is that love is not always what we think it is. Simple desire often clouds the issue, as does envy, or even baser motives, such as revenge. So how does civility fit in when faced with such complex and undefinable human emotions?

Ms. Murdoch offers no easy answers. In fact, the somewhat ambiguous ending would seem to indicate that humans--or at least upper-class English humans--will always flout convention when pursuing happiness. Or love. Or the perception of these.

This a fine novel. Although towards the end it careens into farce, one does not have to be an expert in the manners of mid-century English society to recognize what are, indeed, universal themes.

What is so special about this book is the way in which it manages to balance the funny with the tragic, and the romantic with the demonic. It is extremely funny to see how the characters are affected by love, and how they are gradually transformed from rational beings into irrational and occasionally ridiculous beings. Some of the scenes are terrifically funny sometimes bordering on slapstick. In this sense "The Severed Head" reminded me of a typical Shakespearean comedy. But as is also known, comedy often, if not always, also has a more serious dimension which is perhaps not as lucid as the comic elements but is nonetheless tacitly present. For example one might question whether it is actually love which drives the characters towards eachother. Is it not rather desire and self-obsession, which is mistaken for love? Are the characters not just looking for something meaningfull, and trying to find a purpose with their existence? At the end of the book love no longer seems to mean love in the romantic sense since almost all of the characters have had affairs with eachother. Here we clearly see a quite serious and contemporary problem, is there such a thing as true love in modern society or is it all just a game without true feelings? For Geordie, one of the female characters in the book it is not all a game since she tries to commit suicide, because her lover, the protagonist of the story, has leaft her. To sum up, it was this blend of the comic and the tragic which for me made the story so good. Although the book is fairly old, it works 100 percent in our postmodern age where doubt and insecurity are some of the key characteristics. As the novel deftly exemplifies this can be treated and observed in many ways and in many modes, and this plurality should appeal to the contemporary reader in many ways.

"A Severed Head" is a dark but extraordinary novel, full of emotion, surprises, and sumptuous writing. Layers -- or webs -- of meaning make it an excellent choice for readers who enjoy analyzing, dissecting and contemplating literature (or life). Human nature -- to say nothing of (dis)loyalty, gall, irony and (often misplaced) passion -- are on searing display here. Iris Murdoch is a rare find.

After completing this read, I retrospectively notice three primary functions that make it worthy of five stars. First, the language flows together to construct a cohesive work that captures the reader and doesn't let go. Second, a sprinkling of wit can be found throughout the book, enlivening it and complimenting the language. Most importantly, these two facets enhance a certain intangible depth. It is the kind of depth that you can't really put your finger on but that you unmistakably feel is present. All in all, Iris Murdoch has managed to do in just 200 pages what most authors never accomplish: that is to create a truly great literary work.

I picked this up at a friend's house while catsitting, and confess that I had never even heard of Iris Murdoch before. I chose it because it was short enough that I could read it before my friend returned home in a few days.

I finished it last night, and felt compelled to review it here to encourage others to read it. I started the book thinking that it would be a slightly dark and dreary story about a man going mad with love. I had no idea that Murdoch would weave humor so finely throughout the entire book. The whole time, I was wracked with exasperation and anger for the main character, wondering if and when he was going to pop. At the same time, I simply had to laugh at the irony and sarcasm.

Murdoch really did a wonderful job, and I will be looking for her works again.

An all-too-horribly-true account of triangular/quadrangular relationships. Maybe because their lives run too smoothly, the characters are tempted to throw themselves into dramatic situations where they can see themselves and each other feeling the big emotions and saying the great tragic lines. Except they are all so bloody civilised they insist on "talking things through". Marriage is shown to be nothing more than a stage set carefully dressed with the right kind of antiques.

These people are not "English aristocrats" - most of them are English upper-middle-class. It's quite clear that the Lynch-Gibbons have made their money in trade (the wine trade) and are only second-generation country-house owners. The invading hordes or possibly avenging demons (Palmer and Honor) are American.

Required reading for anyone caught up in a love triangle whose participants are all seeing different shrinks.

This is an unusual and enjoyable novel, full of struggling (largely unsympathetic) characters, delicious ironies, and understated mysteries that ply the readers' imagination even after it abruptly ends. The basic plot is about a marriage in crisis, but every time the reader thinks (s)he knows what's going on, more surprises - all horrendous and shocking - are just around the corner. Alliances and new life commitments are made and re-made in every chapter, to the point that just about every combination is eventually tried and tested and rejected, without ever reaching an equilibrium. The narrator is constantly confused and yet slogging ahead (with the help of a lot of drink) and trying to find a safe love along with total love, perhaps from more than one woman. The whole thing reads like a relentless parlor comedy, and often feels unrealistic, but the purpose of Murdock seems to be to get the reader to reconsider his/her life while laughing and yet horrified at the actions of the characters. It is, in my view, an exquisite balance of pain and ironic humor, a masterwork really. It also highlights how different the cultures are that share a language across the Atlantic: Brits really do have extremely different ideas about how to behave, including staying polite and nice in the face of the cruellest spousal betrayals and hypocrisy, though there are small eruptions of erotic violence. THe ending is just as confusing and unexpected as the rest of the book, and the trajectory that the characters will follow is totally unpredictable, which means they are vivid enough to live in the readers' mind.

Warmly recommended. THis can be read and re-read with profit, and I certainly will. It is a great gift book for the discerning reader.