The Unicorn (Paperback)

~ (Author) "'How far away is it?'..." (more)
Key Phrases: salmon pool, Miss Taylor, Gerald Scottow, Miss Evercreech (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Marian Taylor accepts a position as companion to Mrs. Hannah Crean-Smith, and gradually comes to the opinion that she is a prisoner of her husband.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 6, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014002476X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140024760
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #586,540 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #13 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Murdoch, Iris

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A deepening fascination for morals and motivation, November 29, 2000

By	Alan Brown (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

I've read a few of Iris Murdoch's early novels - Under the Net, Sandcastle, the Italian Girl, A Severed Head. The Unicorn was written after these, but still about the middle of Murdoch's oeuvre. As always, the characters are deliciously self-concious and enigmatic. The secrets of their pasts that underly their motivation are initially obscured and gradually revealed over the course of the novel. What makes the Unicorn different is the psychological depth at which the characters revealed. The Unicorn's characters are like the proverbial onion, and Murdoch, like a masochistic cook, peels the layers slowly.

The novel opens with the youthful and urbane Marian taking a post as a governace, with a altogether strange family in an entirely isolated coastal English community. She soon discovers that there aren't any children to look after, but that she is intended as a 'lady-companion' for Hannah, the mistress and virtual prisoner of the house. Marian slowly unravels the complicated web of relationships that bind the inhabitants of her strange new home together, in the process hatching a brave, if foolhardy, plot to rescue Hannah from self-imposed captivity.

To sum up, if you've never read any of her work, this may be a good place to dive into the novels of Iris Murdoch. It is a work that appeals both to fans of suspense, horror, and just good literature. Cheers

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marvelous Modern Gothic, July 23, 1999

By	Miguel Cane "Writer, Journalist, Film Critic" (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

Both a gothic horror story and a heartbreaking character study, "The Unicorn" is quite possibly one of the best novels published in the english language in the latter part of the century.

With an angst-inducing atmosphere, the tale of Marian Taylor, restless, young and naïve, and the tormented Hannah (in a way, the Unicorn of the title)both exiled in a decrepit manse in rural England, close to the sea, but nowhere else, is a pilgrimage of the soul in search of freedom from the burden of [alleged] sin. But it seems, this cannot be.

Also, this book offers wisdom in many forms, including a quote that may very well make its way to the core of modern philosophy, as said by Marian: "Art and psychoanalysis give shape and meaning to life and that is why we adore them, yet life as it is lived has no shape nor meaning, and that is what i am experiencing just now."

Definitely a novel to be read many times and to be kept at hand for a long time to come.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flows Gracefully, October 4, 2002

By	Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Unicorn" has great pacing that makes you want to turn the page and see what happens next. It's slowed only by the characters' self-analysis. We might say there's a swamp of feeling that grows to a flood of feeling which paralells the weather within the story. Unicorn is set in a remote area of the British Isles by the sea. The story alternates characters through whom we see the story in its different parts: Marian, a teacher who comes to Gaze Castle and Effingham who's in love with 3 different women at different times, and who, through profuse self-analysis, is able to talk himself out of each of them. Both characters embody the yin and yang of uncertainty. It's their travel through waves of emotional uncertainty that gives the tale it's life-like feel. The supporting characters are delightfully distinct. Violet Evercreech is a judgmental oracle that made me picture Lily Tomlin running around the castle. Gerald Scottow is compex mix of opportunist and homosexual domineer. Denis is somber and taciturn, attracted briefly to Marian. The best chapter is Denis' rescue of Effingham. Jamsie, Scottow's boy toy, is delightfully weak. At the center of the storm is Hannah around whom Murdoch swirls the tale. Although the dead bodies tend to multiply quickly, we leave Unicorn with a bittersweet regret. This is one to savor! Enjoy!