- Paperback: 576 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Classics; New Ed edition (30 Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099285258
- ISBN-13: 978-0099285250
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 3.8 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 717,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Good Apprentice (Vintage Classics)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Iris Murdoch at her most artful, juggling philosophy and farce with knowledge and ease." --"Economist"
Product Description
Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity and his motives. Stuart's step-brother Edward Baltram is tormented by guilt because he has, he believes, killed his best friend. He dreams sometimes of redemption, sometimes of suicide. Funny, compelling and extremely moving, THE GOOD APPRENTICE is about guilt ridden despair, and the difficult problem of how to try to be good - and the various magical devices which console those who are sensible enough not to try.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is my first Iris Murdoch and I loved it. I thought she may be too erudite for me, but this was not the case. From the start the story was absorbing. She has excellent dialogue and characterisation, and is not at all pretentious. I would recommend The Good Apprentice .
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
murdoch's genius
9 Dec 2001
Format: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
Good intentions & the pursuit of happiness
13 Jan 2003
Format: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
Rich in pleasures, plot, and philosophy
25 July 2005
Format: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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