- Paperback: 576 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Classics; New Ed edition (16 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099283794
- ISBN-13: 978-0099283799
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 4 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 209,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
For years, Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar inthe belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind. Luden's friends are more sceptical. Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy. Gildas herne, ex-preist, thinks he is evil. Patrick Fenman, poet is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him. Marcus has disappeared and must be found. But he is a genius, a hero struggling at the bounds of human knowledge? Is he seeking God, or is he just another victim of the Holocaust, which casts its shadow upon him and upon Ludens, both of them jewish? Can human thinking discover the foundations of human consciousness? Irish Murdoch's endlessly inventive imagination has touched a fundamental question of our time.
From the Back Cover
'I suspect that when the intellectual map of our own times comes to be sketched out, Iris Murdoch will occupy a position analogous to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky...Murdoch writes better than anyone living about the condition of being in love; both the ecstatic joys of it and its capacity to turn otherwise decent individuals into monsters of selfishness and cruelty...Her vision of the world is heart-rending, but ultimately celebratory' A.N. Wilson, Guardian
For years Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar in the belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind.
Ludens's friends are more sceptical.Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy.Gildas Herne, ex-priest, thinks he is evil.Patrick Fenman, poet, is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him.Marcus has disappeared and must be found.But is he a genius, a hero struggling at the bounds of human knowledge?Is he seeking God, or is he just another victim of the Holocaust, which casts its shadow upon him and upon Ludens, both of them Jewish?Cool common sense is provided by the women: Franca, Jack's wife, Alison, his mistress, feminist Maisie Tether, and Irina, Marcus's eccentric daughter.Can human thinking discover the foundations of human consciousness? Iris Murdoch's endlessly inventive imagination has touched a fundamental question of our time.
'The Message to the Planet is a highly wrought a work of art as Dame Iris has yet given us' Spectator
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had never read any Murdoch until recently, fearing it was too "heavy going" or "high brow" for me. I've had a lot of catching up to do! Murdoch creates wonderful characters who display the realest of human frailties and quickly become loved friends - ending one of her novels leaves one lonely for the loss of them. The Message to the Planet works, like so many of her novels, on several levels. There's a good story, great characters, and a fascinating exploration of genius and the quest for philosophical and religious answers. If you are considering reading a Murdoch novel and haven't done so before, have a go! I would also strongly recommend The Good Apprentice.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Murdoch places a mirror before the reader in the shape of Professor Marcus Valler, an exceptional mathematician, who dismisses his academic career to swim in the murky waters of mysticism. He is a man manqué, tormented by his search for `truth', cosmic identity, haunted by human pain and suffering (particularly the Holocaust). Iris, however, disassembles this intriguing character through the mechanisations of those close to him: Alfred Ludens, the protective, consuming disciple; Patrick `Lazarus' Fenman; Gildas Herne, the agnostic doubter; the Sheerwater ménage a trois; the secretive, perplexing daughter Irina. Marcus ends up in a `Murdochian' mental health service, ensconced in his own villa, surrounded by pleasing English countryside, warmed by the summer sun and neighbouring an ancient stone (shrouded in myth and, seemingly, magic properties). But, as with many Murdoch novels, things are not quite as they appear. Does Marcus have supernatural powers? Will Irina marry Ludens? Can love be shared equally? Is human goodness innate? Is there any meaning in life? All these themes are explored in a narrative that is captivating and mesmerising. Considering this was one of Murdoch's last novels it is interesting to note what Ludens believed Marcus was trying to do `to get beyond the bounds of traditional philosophical thinking' and enter a realm of transcendence, beyond the ego and ordinary morality. I wonder what Sartre would have made of it all?
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Philosophy and Love
13 April 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I like this book at least as well as The Bell and the Sandcastle, and very possibly more.
One of the characters in this book asks where ordinary morality is, when what is called for in the world is the courage of a saint. Once again, Murdoch visits the question of the Good and how it applies to human life. This time the question centers around Marcus, who anchors the novel as a character from myth-- sometimes a saint, sometimes Prospero, sometimes a lunatic. Each of the other characters in the book have to find their way (through eccentric marriages, chaste romances, resurrections, and mysticism) in a world where all the familiar rules no longer apply. All the solutions (where there are solutions) are complicated and costly.
As usual, the writing is crisp and incisive, the characters well-formed and very complete. One of the great Murdoch novels.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A brilliant, incisive novel
10 Feb 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Although this is ostensibly a novel about a bizarre character's interaction with the world around him, what I took from it is a probing, insightful look by Murdoch at the question of what would it be like if Jesus appeared in present times....Her prose is dense and the book can be difficult at times, but the payoff is well worth the effort.
well worth the effort
28 Nov 2011
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Some might think that the title of this book is misleading. It is a later work and on a par with "the sea, the sea" and "the green knight". Many of her books have to do with relationships that change dramatically when a major character changes. "The Unicorn" is probably the book where this is the most obvious but "the message to the planet" develops this theme in a much more complex way. Also, in many of her books lots of people die. In some cases it's simply to hard to believe the casuality rate. It isn't the case in "the message to the planet". The book is a great example of Iris Murdoch at her best.
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