- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (27 Feb 1975)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140039341
- ISBN-13: 978-0140039344
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.9 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 244,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
'It is witty and wise and provocative...brilliantly good' Evening Standard
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
A novel in which an elderly writer with a block, surrounded by predatory friends and relations, seeks to escape, but his failure to do so and its aftermath lead to a violent climax. From the author of THE SEA, THE SEA and THE BELL.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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
10/10
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"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. It is a mordant study of the psychological tennis match that constitutes so much of human interaction. It is a novel with not one likeable character, and yet one can somehow relate to all of them. I found it disturbing throughout, but was quite taken with it.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"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 failings and triumphs, loves and hates, and for its prose, which is ecstatic, biting, and brilliant. The ambiguously romantic Black Prince of the title, Bradley Pearson, is an aged bachelor, whose range of somewhat histrionic emotions involves the serene Rachel Baffin, her confused daughter Julian, Rachel's novelist husband Arnold, Bradley's rival in so many ways, Bradley's dysfunctional sister Priscilla, and Bradley's prying ex-wife Christian, who holds the possibility of solace and redemption. In amongst this tangled web they weave Bradley "meditates" on art and metaphysics, sleeping and waking, life and death.
Iris Murdoch is the English authoress of a score of popular novels. Unlike the submissions of most writers who attempt to be popular, Ms. Murdoch's elegant fictions are literature, and are also aspirants to the semi-mythical realm of "art". And what is "art"? Is it not, in at least its principle manifestation, great entertainment? And I would assert that the greatness of the entertainment depends mightily upon the reader. I know a man who thinks, and says, that all of Iris Murdoch's books are alike. Very well. Emotional response is surely the beginning of literary criticism (otherwise why bother reviewing this book, or that one?). I identified with Bradley Pearson for several years of my life, and was jubilant that he lived in a world of funny, thoughtful, intensely interesting people, most of whom were not relatives.
"Morality" (I put this fragile word between quotation marks because it is so often misused) is intimate to the Murdoch view of things, and the "eternal verities" are influential, even numinous, to all of her characters, including the thoughtless ones. Love, as a unifying force, is awake and vibrant. Beauty is our glimpse of the Godhead. Truth is a paradise into which we may freely pass, if only we have the desire to do so. Justice is as intimate as self-condemnation and as ruthless as violence. Abstractions, in the world of Iris Murdoch's characters, dissolve into human emotions that clarify the world and link us in splendid ways to other human animals. "The Black Prince" is a celebration of our ambiguous and splendid emotions. [November 28, 1996]
Iris Murdoch is the English authoress of a score of popular novels. Unlike the submissions of most writers who attempt to be popular, Ms. Murdoch's elegant fictions are literature, and are also aspirants to the semi-mythical realm of "art". And what is "art"? Is it not, in at least its principle manifestation, great entertainment? And I would assert that the greatness of the entertainment depends mightily upon the reader. I know a man who thinks, and says, that all of Iris Murdoch's books are alike. Very well. Emotional response is surely the beginning of literary criticism (otherwise why bother reviewing this book, or that one?). I identified with Bradley Pearson for several years of my life, and was jubilant that he lived in a world of funny, thoughtful, intensely interesting people, most of whom were not relatives.
"Morality" (I put this fragile word between quotation marks because it is so often misused) is intimate to the Murdoch view of things, and the "eternal verities" are influential, even numinous, to all of her characters, including the thoughtless ones. Love, as a unifying force, is awake and vibrant. Beauty is our glimpse of the Godhead. Truth is a paradise into which we may freely pass, if only we have the desire to do so. Justice is as intimate as self-condemnation and as ruthless as violence. Abstractions, in the world of Iris Murdoch's characters, dissolve into human emotions that clarify the world and link us in splendid ways to other human animals. "The Black Prince" is a celebration of our ambiguous and splendid emotions. [November 28, 1996]
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
My first Iris Murdoch novel
Having recently watched the movie "Iris" I purchased The Black Prince. This is such a refreshinging original novel that I enjoyed the chaos, dialogue and lack of obvious direction,... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Chessman
The Black Prince
The Black Prince focuses on the character of Bradley Pearson, who has just retired from the Inland Revenue working as a tax man. Read more
Published 15 months ago by AdeleM
Cerebral & Disconcerting
[This review is not concerned with the plot. Rather it attempts to describe some of the elements and feelings engendered by the reading experience, which is equally... Read more
Published 20 months ago by LittleMoon
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 on 14 Feb 2008 by Persephone
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
Brilliant - a witty page-turner (Yeah, Iris *CAN* do witty)
People who have never read a word Iris Murdoch has ever written, criticise her for being "difficult". Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2004 by Sylvia Pomegranite
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"
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
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. The Black Prince is a very intelligent, well-crafted book. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 1999
Big Ideas, good tale - too much talk
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. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 1999
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