Publisher Description

A darkly comic story of creativity, conscience, rebirth and love, which displays all of Murdoch's virtuoso imagination and narrative genius.In the English town of Ennistone, hot springs bubble up from deep beneath the earth. In these healing waters the townspeople seek health and regeneration, rightousness and ritual cleansing.To this town steeped in ancient lore and subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. He exerts an almost magical influence over a host of Ennistonians, and especially over George McCaffrey, the Philosopher's old pupil, a demonic man desperate for redemption.

Notes

An inspiring philosopher returns to the English spa town of Ennistone, stirring up a strangely linked set of characters in this challenging and entertaining classic.

Back Cover

'Marvellous.. Compulsive reading, hugely funny' Spectator In the English town of Ennistone, hot springs bubble up from deep beneath the earth. In these healing waters the townspeople seek health and regeneration, rightousness and ritual cleansing. To this town steeped in ancient lore and subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. He exerts an almost magical influence over a host of Ennistonians, and especially over George McCaffrey, the host of Ennistonians, and especially over George McCaffrey, the Philosopher's old pupil, a demonic man desperate for redemption. See also: Flight from the Enchanter

Author Biography

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. She read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, and after working in the Treasury and abroad, was awarded a research studentship in Philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948 she returned to Oxford as fellow and tutor at St Anne's College and later taught at the Royal College of Art. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 and in the 1997 PEN Awards received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature.

Review

Marvellous.. Compulsive reading, hugely funny * Spectator *
We are back, of course, with great delight, in the land of Iris Murdoch, which is like no other but Prospero's * Sunday Telegraph *
The most daring and original of all her novels -- A. N. Wilson
Never for a moment does one want to stop reading... I don't think Iris Murdoch has ever written better prose * Daily Telegraph *
Ambitious, unique and ingeniously plotted -- Joyce Carol Oates * New York Times *

Promotional

A darkly comic story of creativity, conscience, rebirth and love, which displays all of Murdoch's virtuoso imagination and narrative genius.

Kirkus US Review

"We are in fact far more randomly made, more full of rough contingent rubble, than art or vulgar psycho-analysis lead us to imagine. . . . The sin of pride may be a small or a great thing in someone's life, and hurt vanity a passing pinprick or a self-destroying or even murderous obsession." Once again, then, Murdoch is slowly - and ever so slyly - sliding the shrouds off a pantheon of poor souls who suffer from the damndest metaphysical aches and pains; and, as usual, a primordial soup of waters (even more symbolically effective than before) play about them. The village of Enniston boasts a complex of indoor and outdoor pools and rooms: a once-famous 18th century spa that now - gushing, plashing, misting - has become a kind of agora for the villagers, young and old, gamboling like otters. Among those seen from time to time through the curative (or Satanic) mists: Alex McCaffrey, whose feral bent is echoed by the foxes in her garden; her favorite son George, a deliberately violent sinner who may or may not have attempted to drown strong-minded wife Stella (he rather hopes he did); her less-loved son Brian, an iron prig who hardly shares wife Gabriel's animistic, amoebic empathies; young "stepson" Tom, the sweet and unspoiled offspring of Alex's dead husband and the late wild Fiona. Then, into the sluggish drift of the McCaffreys and their various satellites (a gypsy maid, George's weepy mistress), comes the Jovian presence of the Great Philosopher - ex-Ennistonite John Robert Rozanov: Alex rekindles a passion; George, Rozanov's former irritating pupil, hounds Olympus for salvation as a "justified sinner," But Rozanov no longer wishes to play the role of wise philosopher. ("One cannot tell the truth - that is damnation.") He devotes himself instead to the exquisite, frenzied care of his virginal granddaughter Hattie. And this obsession will lead to murder - as pupil and philosopher join, waters scald and flow, unearthly music is heard, hopeless loves are exorcised. . . and frantic lives become as stilled and serene as a lapping pool. Murdoch followers can tick off each familiar, idiosyncratic symbol - the water, the dog, the flash of antlers. But, for those attuned to deep matters, this is rich and freshly challenging fiction: an enchanted journey into metaphysics, with prideful passions abstracted - via that densely stylish Murdoch prose - into awesomely homiletic postures. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review Text

Marvellous.. Compulsive reading, hugely funny

Review Quote

Marvellous.. Compulsive reading, hugely funny

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