- Hardcover: 522 pages
- Publisher: Viking Pr (January 1986)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670809403
- ISBN-13: 978-0670809400
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15 x 4.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 907 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,479,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
For openers, there's murder, a tough act to follow. But Murdoch, veteran of 21 novels and a recipient of a Booker among other literary prizes, plunges undismayed into the dense, tortured history of Edward Baltram. As a lark, Edward has drugged a sandwich and served it to his best friend and fellow student Mark Wilsden, then gone off to pleasure himself with a casually met young woman; he returns to find Mark's shattered body on the pavement below the window of their shared lodging. At a seance, attended in desperation, he receives a summons to Seegard, the turreted stronghold of Jesse Baltram, whose bastard he is and who long ago abandoned him. There, greeted ony by Jesse's wife May and his two daughters, who assure Edward that Jesse will soon return, he sets out to find the father on whom the wild force of his austerely repressed love is now concentrated. Just after Jesse is discovered, a senile prisoner in a tower of his own house, Edward's stepfather Harry Cuno stumbles by chance into Seegard with Edward's aunt Midge, sister of his dead mother, once Harry's wife. Until that moment only the reader has been privy to the lovemaking carried on at Midge's house when her psychiatrist husband, Harry's closest friend, is in his office, at Harry's when his son and stepson Stuart are away. Now portents and poltergeists are released in good earnest: Was Midge the agent of her sister's death? Whose face does Edward see in the water? Is May poisoning the father and the son? Was Mark's love for Edward homosexual? It is a measure of the author's skill that despite the contrivances, coincidences, psychic dabbling and all-but-incestuous trafficking, the reader's involvement with the huge cast never diminishes, nor does attention to their wit and philosophical exchanges flag. The strands of several novels on many levels are here densely woven together, and if the knots are tied too patly, it is nonetheless a joy to watch the pattern emerge. 25,000 first printing. U.K. rights: Chatto & Windus; translation rights: Ed Victor. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Iris Murdoch at her most artful, juggling philosophy and farce with knowledge and ease." --Economist
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A bit contrived and melodramatic,
By A Customer
This review is from: Good Apprentice (Paperback)
I enjoy and admire Iris Murdoch, but this was a tough one to finish. The characters are appealing, but are constantly undergoing bizarre emotional transformations. One minute she loves Harry, the next minute she loves Stuart, now she loves Thomas with a newfound maturity. Now he's consumed by incurable black despair - whoops, now he's shaken it off and is facing the future with cautious optimism. It wouldn't be so tedious except that each transient mental state is described with the same passionate conviction and detail.Secondly, the relationships here are even more incestuous and coincidental than usual. Everybody knows everybody else and it seems like there are only a dozen people in the world. Edward loves Brownie who loves Giles who is the son of Edward's tutor and until recently loved Edward's brother Stuart. Harry loves Midge who is the sister of his deceased wife and Edward's mother Chloe. Sarah seduces Edward which figures in the death of Brownie's brother Mark; Sarah, Brownie and their mothers are all friends whom Edward accidentally discovers living near his father's country home. Edward's stepmother May writes her memoirs, which are critically reviewed by Sarah's mother Elspeth; you get the idea. Of course there were some fine moments, and I won't give up on reading Murdoch, but I doubt this was one of her best efforts.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
murdoch's genius,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Hardcover)
This is one of the three superb long novels Murdoch published in the second half of the 80s. The characters are brilliantly drawn, especially the psychiatrist Thomas, his friend the ambitious, talented but frustrated Harry Cuno, and Harry's son Stuart, the good apprentice of the title. Underneath the typical Murdochian plot twists, the novel tackles profound themes, including depression and mental illness, guilt and forgiveness, and the impact of technology on human relations. The parts of the novel set in London are stronger than those set in the country. Her genius is fully on display here.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good intentions & the pursuit of happiness,
By "jenniferbraun" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)
What happens when loving intentions result in disastrous outcomes? Iris Murdoch's, The Good Apprentice, features gothic ancestral dwellings, a trio of eccentric women, peculiar, seedy London séances, modern psychiatry, upper-class contemporary love affairs and infidelity, intense family relationships and questing for worthy missions in order to justify individual lives. I didn't easily breeze through this book neither could I put it down. Murdoch's heavy philosophical background is excruciatingly evident. However, I knew I was in the hands of a great artist when I laughed out loud with delight in passages. I look forward to reading more of her writing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich in pleasures, plot, and philosophy,
By Miss Grimke - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Good Apprentice (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)
The Good Apprentice sucked me into reading Iris Murdoch about 20 years ago. I have since worked my way, with immense pleasure, through all her novels. I'm reading GA for the second time, and I find I have less patience now for the long philosophical soliloquies of the characters. But the novel reminds me how well Murdoch indulges her readers' love a good plot and richly imagined and deliciously flawed characters, all revolving around a Great Man, who may not be but probably is somewhat of a charlatan. Reading Murdoch is the best way I know to combine a love of philosophy--and excellent writing--with a hankering for soap opera. GA is a good place to start reading Murdoch (and come back to).
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