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The Black Prince (Vintage Classics)
 
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The Black Prince (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Iris Murdoch (Author), Candia McWilliam (Introduction)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £5.39 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics; New Ed edition (7 Sep 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099283999
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099283997
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 38,803 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #8 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Murdoch, Iris

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Product Description

Product Description
"The Black Prince" is both a remarkable thriller and a story about being in love. Bradley Pearson, narrator and hero, is an elderly writer with a 'block'. Finding himself surrounded by predatory friends and relations - his ex-wife, her delinquent brother, a younger, deplorably successful writer, Arnold Baffin, Baffin's restless wife and engaging daughter - Bradley attempts to escape. His failure to do so and its aftermath lead to a violent climax and a most unexpected conclusion.

From the Publisher
It is witty and wise and provocative...brilliantly good' Evening Standard


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The Black Prince (Vintage Classics)
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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 (8)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Aesthetics, Truth and the black Eros, 6 Feb 2004
By A Customer
Like many of Murdoch's novels, one is almost dismayed at the drab wretchedness of the narrator's life, which oddly enough, makes for compelling reading. Bradley Pearson is perhaps one of the most unsympathetic characters ever portrayed, petty, manipulative, jealous and cold and yet the reader finds himself in the uncomfortable position of sympathising with the man. It is here that the genius of this book lies. Providing an interesting, if somewhat unstructured 'extended essay' on aesthetics, Truth and the black Eros the novel is thought provoking and witty, not least in its final grim twist.
10/10
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Big Ideas, good tale - too much talk, 2 Aug 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Black Prince (Paperback)
Murdoch clearly knew a lot about Hell - just about every character lives there in this book. It has to be one of the most despairing depictions of the human condition in English. Yet I don't think she quite invites comparison with the greats. The characters are just too, well, knowledgable, too talkative about their conditions. Of course everything they, including the narrator, say, is unreliable - but that's not exactly the point: they lack weight, a certain verbal dexterity blights them all. Their words are slippery and they're bound to be wrong about themselves most of the time. That's probably part of Murdoch's intended effect. Still, however you slice it, too much verbosity is bad for the soul. You cease to care much what happens to these people because they're essentially trivial. You keep thinking you're in a french farce or Restoration comedy - but you know the narrator (and the author, too, I think) imagines something more ominous at the bottom of these wretched lives. Call it a perverse power (the Black Prince?) operating to destroy the few bits of happiness these people are capable of. That very power - especially in the case of the narrator, Bradley Pearson - may also be necessary to lift them out of the torpor of their lives. That's an interesting idea - this author is nothing if not daring and inventive. Still, in the end, the lives here are more willed than realized. I never quite believed in either the misery or the exaltation of the narrator - and certainly not in the transforming power his love is supposed to have over his youthful beloved, Christian. Yet the depiction of this love affair is not ironic and is uncharacteristically elevated in tone: Christian is part Beatrice, part Heloise - and wholly wish-fulfilment. Bradley, on the other hand, is most identifiable as a certain type of dissatisfied malcontent - detached, anesthetized, ironical - until made otherwise by Love, the Black Prince. But even in love he hasn't enough substance to constitute the center-piece of a book: I never believed any of his high-flown talk about either art or love. Bradley Pearson, you're no Jonathan Swift. Iris Murdoch, you're no Fyodor Dostoevsy.... But compulsively readable, all the same. This author can't write a silly sentence or a dull book.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant - a witty page-turner (Yeah, Iris *CAN* do witty), 24 Jan 2004
People who have never read a word Iris Murdoch has ever written, criticise her for being "difficult".

If any of them picked up The Black Prince", I would be amazed if they didn't enjoy it. The characters are hysterically funny at times - all with their own weird hang-ups. There are parts of the plot that make one cringe in the manner of a Fawlty Towers episode.

The one thing that surprised me is how well Iris Murdoch can write from a male perspective, so much so that one wonders how outraged the literati might have been if some of the physical descriptions of women had been written by a male writer.

Thoroughly recommended.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This novel is a work of art
The Black Prince is in my opinion the finest novel Iris Murdoch wrote, and perhaps one of the finest novels of its time. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Persephone

2.0 out of 5 stars I did not like it
This was a first time that I approached Murdoch's book. I am very disappointed. Iris has a reputation of being a very "difficult to understand" writer. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2006 by Eve

5.0 out of 5 stars the black prince the 'greatest book of our time'
this is an excellent book recommended for those who are interested in reading mind puzzling books. it is a facinating novel holding captive readers in suspense right to the end... Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2002 by kitty_kat1

5.0 out of 5 stars A mesmerising tale of despair in the human condition
I read Iris Murdoch's "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine" a year ago and didn't much like it. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 1999

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, but still well worth reading.
Iris Murdoch's books aren't for everyone: they are written for sensitive, intellectual, and introspective readers. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A versatile combination of narrative and meditation
Iris Murdoch took me on a roller-coaster adventure through a comic succession of surprises but also terrible blows of a sort of fate. Read more
Published on 29 April 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars A DISTURBING STUDY OF MANKIND IN ALL ITS CUNNING
"The Black Prince" is a repelling page-turner. I often found myself reaching to pick it up, then reaching past it for almost anything else. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest and most entertaining novels ever.
I've read about half of Iris Murdoch's books, and I believe this book represents the pinnacle of her achievement. The book is deeply satisfying from beginning to end. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid meditations on love and death
"The Black Prince" is my favorite novel, and I can recommend it unreservedly for its vivid characters, for its complexity, its wit, its drama, for its analysis of human... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 1996

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