9780140033328

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"At times, Murdoch's plot comes dangerously close to resembling a television situation-comedy--all is contrived, hence not very significant; all is rhetorical rather than truly emotional, hence a little exasperating....Why does Iris Murdoch continue to write novels in which empty people are emptily manipulated, when her talent and intelligence could so obviously be tested in the creation of real fiction?"

Joyce Carol Oates, Book World, 2/1/70

"Melodramatic incidents, purloined letters, apparently unmotivated actions--in spite of everything, Iris Murdoch has not lost her intelligence as a writer. The worn-out fictional devices, one realizes after finishing the novel, are deliberately introduced; Miss Murdoch dares the reader to take the apparent defects in her work at face value because she has other, grander, objectives in mind....As a novel of ideas, the book is an ambitious exploration of the philosophical problem of evil....The gloominess of the philosophical theme of the novel is offset by a multitude of comic incidents which here, as in her earlier fiection, give Miss Murdoch a chance to display her inventive skill."

Rubin Rabinovitz, New York Times Book Review, 2/8/70

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