What do You think about The Unicorn (1987)?
This is a solid psychological drama and, perhaps for that very reason, only a lackluster gothic novel. The gothic trappings are present: nicely ominous scenery, mysterious and threatening characters, an old manor with a buried history. But all of this is set dressing. The substance of the story is people—pretty sane people, on the whole—talking to each other and thinking about things and sometimes falling in love. The atmosphere is somewhat at odds with the subject matter. The threatening characters never rise to the level of actual threats. The secrets of Gaze Castle, when revealed, are not particularly shocking; they lack the edge of perversity you’d expect. It’s all a little too subdued and realistic and not particularly fun. I think the problem is that gothic fiction is an inherently melodramatic genre, while Murdoch is most comfortable with psychological realism. When she strives for a melodramatic effect, as she does toward the end of the novel, where the body count takes a steep and sudden climb, the extreme developments feel a little incongruous with what comes before.I don’t want to give the impression that this is a bad novel. It’s very far from that. It contains many vivid descriptions of scenery and some excellent characterization. But I guess well-done psychological realism is not enough to float my boat, as a reader, unless the characters are ones I can really relate to. And I sorta liked Marian, and there were moments when I warmed to Effingham, but I wasn’t crazy about either. They are fairly regular people with fairly ordinary flaws thrust into a moderately bizarre situation. Gothic novels don’t require caricature, of course, but a few vivid and exaggerated details of characterization might have gone a long way toward making this a more memorable reading experience.There are still a couple Iris Murdoch novels I’d like to try before I give up on her (I know this was an odd place to start). On the basis of The Unicorn she is a skilled author, worth reading for sure, but perhaps not for me.
—Aaron Jansen
Phew, I finally made it to the very last page! But, honestly speaking, I don't know what to make of it, really. At the beginning I really enjoyed reading this book and felt utterly mesmerised by its Gothic setting and mysterious plot, but the further I got the less I understood (or so it felt) and the more annoyed I became with the main characters' erratic and inadequate behavior. The book left too many questions and not a single answer or at least a clue! At one point it felt as if I could never make head or tail of it without a half-liter of [insert any alcoholic drink here]. On a side note; aha, now I get it, that's why everyone's constantly drinking whiskey in this book! But anyway, it was an amazing novel, ambiguous and depressive but quite deep, thought-provoking and just plain WOW. A tough nut to crack that definitely needs re-reading.
—Yulia
This review isn’t going to be long, as I finished this book a few weeks ago and never got around to writing the review. Perhaps because I thought I couldn’t do it justice, because I wasn’t sure I would be able to properly explain why I am rating it 5 stars. I guess, simplest answer, is that it had almost everything I like in a novel; desolate setting, weird characters, tragedy/tragic romance, and it makes you think about it when you’re done. This novel, just from the title evokes symbolism and the idea that it should not be taken at face value. I love novels that do this. And I found it moved at a slow burn pace, which I also enjoy. It had culminating action in the last quarter of the novel and I thought the ending was as it should be. As the story was about “the unicorn” the question is raised about who the unicorn is. I would argue that the story is actually about Marian rather than Hannah – while Hannah is the one who drives the action, it’s Marian who learns from it, who changes throughout the novel. Hannah is already doomed – Marian is the one who has to survive. But that’s the kind of thing this novel does for you – it allows you to take a concept or an idea from the novel and play with it for awhile in your mind. The novel is not just a story about a crazy lady in an old house – it’s about much more than that, but Murdoch leaves it up to us to decide what that is. We can take what we want from it. I also found the mystery intriguing, I liked the characters because it was hard to figure out where their loyalties lay, and I enjoyed the tone. There was something consistently menacing about the novel – even when Marian was doing something simple like walking – it was like a ghost was consistently haunting the place with sorrow. Overall, I simply adored this novel. It was like an old Gothic tale but because it was more modern people talked about and had sex ((view spoiler)[Murdoch also did a great job with the subtleties of Marian’s attraction to Denis – when it culminated I was overjoyed because I was hoping it would happen (hide spoiler)]
—Tina
