A Severed Head (Vintage Classics)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist." -"Sunday Times"
"She is incapable of writing without fascinating and beautiful colour." -"The Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"She is incapable of writing without fascinating and beautiful colour." -"The Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
A complicated and comic story of dangerous love affairs
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an odd, quirky book which isn't your usual Iris Murdoch: no near-drownings, nature mysticism or accidents involving machines, and only six characters: three men and three women, who change partners regularly in the manner of a Restoration comedy, or a Noel Coward play, until they've pretty much exhausted all the possible combinations. It's a witty book, but I wouldn't agree with the cover blurb which describes it as a "comic novel". Although the bed-hopping is entertaining for the reader, from the point of view of the characters themselves the whole thing is deadly serious. Indeed, I think this is one of the messages Murdoch is trying to get across: life can be painful and farcical at the same time...
Wine merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon is initially shocked to discover his wife Antonia is sleeping with her psychiatrist, Palmer Anderson. However, he himself is having an affair with a young student, and decides to do the civilised thing and give his tacit approval to his wife's relationship with Palmer, for the sake of an easy life all round. This cozy arrangement is rudely interrupted when Palmer's half-sister, Honor Klein, arrives on the scene: she accuses Martin of cowardice, infuriating him and resulting in a full-blown punch-up between Honor & Martin (in which Honor gives as good as she gets...) Things get even more complicated when Martin's brother Alexander reveals that he has also had an affair with Antonia; and when Martin suddenly realises that he is in love with Honor. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and Martin (and the reader) have a huge shock in store.
Amongst other things, the book is "about" honesty: no-one is being honest to themselves or each other at the outset, and it is only when the aptly-named Honor forcefully points this out to Martin that things can move on. But, of course, Honor herself has significant unresolved issues.
Judging by other reviews, it seems to be very much a love-it-or-hate-it book. I enjoyed it, but was sometimes left wondering just what Murdoch was getting at. Even as dyed-in-the-wool a Murdoch enthusiast as A.S. Byatt didn't seem to be able to make up her mind whether she liked it or not in her book about Murdoch's early novels, "Degrees of Freedom". The novel contains a certain amount of Freudian and Jungian psychobabble which was very trendy in the 1960s when it was written, but seems fairly dated now: I suspect this is why some reviewers have found it pretentious. All the same, there is some great writing here, including some marvellous set pieces: Martin driving Honor through London in a thick fog which is a metaphor for the way he has lost the plot in his life; and a memorable scene involving a woman and a Samurai sword, forty years before Quentin Tarantino. Definitely worth a look.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a delight, but I felt moved to post a review to warn people not to read the introduction by Miranda Seymour before reading the novel, because it gives away many of the important plot developments. Half the fun of the novel comes from some of the unexpected events, so do read the introduction afterwards rather than before. Luckily this is what I did, so it didn't spoil anything.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was given to me to read by my best friend from school. It was the first Iris Murdoch book I have ever read. Well.... what a delight just when you think you have a grip on what is happening it all changes. Since reading it I had to start reading more of her books. This book is wonderful and surprising. A true delight!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Change Partners and Dance
"A Severed Head," (1961), is the fifth novel from Dublin-born, Anglo-Irish Dame Iris Murdoch, British writer, Oxford university don, and highly praised, professional, prolific... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stephanie DePue
Strange
This started out well with a pleasing wave of schadenfreude washing over me when adulterer Martin learns that his wife is having an affair with his best friend. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Swizzlestick
Self-indulgent, self-congratulatory and dull
Very rich middle-aged people, all apparently with firsts from Oxford, play around with each other and then implore the deceived partners to stick around and be loving friends. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Nick Macfie
love stories, like musical chairs - in a washing machine
This is an unusual and enjoyable novel, full of struggling (largely unsympathetic) characters, delicious ironies, and understated mysteries that ply the readers' imagination even... Read more
Published 12 months ago by rob crawford
Disturbing, utterly compelling account of adultery and the muddle of...
In A Severed Head, Martin Lynch-Gibbon, established wine merchant, and happily dedicated two-timing sophisticate (he has been betraying his wife, Antonia, by having an affair for... Read more
Published 18 months ago by R. G. White
A Waste of Time
what a waste of time.
I have read and enjoyed Iris Murdoch's The Bell The Bell (Vintage Classics) and ADORED the incomparable The Sea, The Sea. Read more
I have read and enjoyed Iris Murdoch's The Bell The Bell (Vintage Classics) and ADORED the incomparable The Sea, The Sea. Read more
Published 21 months ago by S. Murphy
Infuriating and overrated.
I must say that `A Severed Head' is one of the most frustrating books I've ever read. I found the characters to be starchy, unrealistically dramatic (especially given their... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2007 by Mr. A. Farrer
A Severed Head
do yourself a favour, and don't read James whatshisname at the start of this list of reviews. What a pretensious twerp!
Published on 28 Jun 2004 by Simon Marsh
A bit strong for the Chardonnay Generation?
Hmm...
well this is Murdoch's fifth novel, not her first, and I can only assume that it may be a bit strong for you Bridget Jones afficianados. Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2003 by j.de turberville
It's just the beginning...
It's visible that it's Murdoch's first novel. The plot is not fully developed and language is not as rich as in her later works. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
