What do You think about The Philosopher's Pupil (1989)?
Very mixed feelings about this one. If I promise a proper review later, that probably won't happen. Whatever I'm going to say, I have to say now. I appreciated the depth and variety of characterization here, but felt the writing was pretty heavy-handed. Interesting meditations on God, philosophy, psychology. It really was the narrative voice that bothered me. It is very much a conceit here. The narrator introduces himself, calls himself N, names the whole town after himself (Ennistone - ha ha), and then proceeds to show us the deep inner workings of every single person's head. Which is hard enough to pull off when it's simply the Magical Omniscient Author doing it, but outright weird when it's a person in the story, tangential to the events, doing it. Also: flying saucer. I have to admit, that didn't make a lot of sense to me. So yes, of the two Murdoch books I have now read, I preferred the other.
—Rachel Hartman
I knew Iris Murdoch was a writed with phenomenal power in explaining and expressing human typology. I had, though, no idea her books could be so powerful."The Philosopher's Pupil" surprised me in many ways, but the best thing about it were by far the characters. Usually, my rating for a book is by how good the action/plot was. In this book, I had to change my ways. Loved loved loved the characters. I especially enjoyed Tom, George and Diane, even though they were not the only ones to be presetend as important characters. Of course, I thought all of them were really well constructed, even Ruby, who at first I thought was plain boring. I liked some of the comparisons that took place in the book, as well as some part of the drama of the big and all-mighty philosopher, John Robert Rozanov, but I thought his actions were a bit fake and his thinking a bit plain.No worries, though, I had a very fine time reading this book.
—Ana
In this one the power of the Dark Lord (one theme in Murdoch is a magnetic character) is not erotic but intellectual. Is there any more miserable creature in the world than a rejected graduate student? Like an abandoned child endlessly searching for his father's approval, the philosopher's pupil seeks for the formula that will unlock the Great Philosopher's treasury of blessings (which as only the reader can see, may not exist). Why Murdoch chose to set this story perched over the monstrous and dangerously aging pipe room, in the steamy chambers of Bath's baths, is a little bit of a mystery to me. Probably some kind of symbolism.
—Jane
