Specify Books Conducive To The Unicorn

Original Title:	The Unicorn
ISBN:	014002476X (ISBN13: 9780140024760)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Marian Taylor, Gerald Scottow, Violet Evercreech, Jamesie Evercreech, Effingham Cooper, Alice Lejour, Max Lejour, Hannah Crean-Smith, Peter Crean-Smith, Philip 'Pip' Lejour, Denis Nolan
Setting:	Gaze Castle(United Kingdom)

The Unicorn Paperback | Pages: 270 pages

Point About Books The Unicorn

Title	:	The Unicorn
Author	:	Iris Murdoch
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 270 pages
Published	:	January 6th 1987 by Penguin Books (first published 1963)
Categories	:	Fiction. Classics. Gothic. European Literature. British Literature. Literature. 20th Century. Novels

Interpretation Toward Books The Unicorn

I love this book so much, but don't know what to make of it at all. It really is very like a unicorn itself: you try to explain it and you just sound crazy. How seriously should you take it? And yet is it not the very most serious thing that ever was?

This is my first Murdoch. I'm reading her because I read an interesting article recently that suggested that she and I have some overlapping ideas about morality. Reading this book, I suspect it's more than that. We have some overlapping and intersecting ways of being in the world and with other people, congruent preoccupations.

I want to contrast her with Mieville, who I found so hard -- not difficult but hard-edged. I ricocheted off the surface of him; he kept me at a great distance. This is the opposite: there is no surface, just interpretations, and we are already inside from the get-go. Way inside, like Effingham sinking in the swamp.

(That's the one thing I didn't quite believe: why didn't that sinking change him more?)

And that makes no sense, but you see, that's the crux of the matter: we are both neo-touchy-feely-ists. The most important sense is intuitive sense.

(I like this very much, but am gently suggesting that I can't tell if it's a good book by any objective measure. But then, I don't suppose it has to be.)

Rating About Books The Unicorn

Ratings: 3.62 From 2376 Users | 250 Reviews

Assessment About Books The Unicorn

About 3/4rd through this book, I would've written a raving review bursting with exclamation marks and superlatives. However, the tragic occurrences and incidents just kept piling up and started to flood the pages, spilling across the paper, nearly drowning the reader in their (melo)drama. Although I appreciate the death of one of your characters as a dramatic tool, it can also be quite exhausting (and even tedious!) for the reader to have nearly each chapter introduce a new death. Nevertheless,

I love this book so much, but don't know what to make of it at all. It really is very like a unicorn itself: you try to explain it and you just sound crazy. How seriously should you take it? And yet is it not the very most serious thing that ever was?This is my first Murdoch. I'm reading her because I read an interesting article recently that suggested that she and I have some overlapping ideas about morality. Reading this book, I suspect it's more than that. We have some overlapping and

Of the three Iris Murdoch novels I've read, The Unicorn is the most fast-paced. As the heroine arrives on a train at the start of the book, so the reader feels they are on a train, moving towards some inexorable end. In The Unicorn, Murdoch takes tropes of the Gothic novel and makes them deliciously subversive. It's not just one kind of story: there are so many layers to it. Elements of fairy tales, legends, tragedy, and comedy mix to create a weird and wonderful brew.Marian Taylor answered an

You can also see my review at The Literary Sisters.The Virago Vintage Classics edition that I read started with an introduction by Stephen Medcalf, who was Iris Murdochs very own student. As he mentions in his introductory essay, The Unicorn is set between two famous landmarks on the west coast of Ireland, the cliffs of Moher and the limestone country of the Burren. I have never been to Ireland myself (yet), but merely looking at pictures of these places just to have the image in my head when I

This book is perfectly named, after the Unicorn - a mythical creature symbolizing deep spiritual and philosophical theories; something that makes perfect sense when you feel it but seems too surreal when you try to talk about it. A treat for classic Gothic/horror lovers, although it's not a book for everyone. There are disturbing characters, confused some of them, and they manage to leave a mark at the end. The central character of Hanna seemed to be a misunderstood angel, though at some point

You gotta love the seventies. The blurb on the back of my used Avon paperback:"ONLY IRIS MURDOCH" (in super-ugly font) "could combine the popular Gothic tale with modern psychological insights to make a story which terrifies as it reveals the secret agonies of desire. In this remarkable novel, a young woman takes a governess' position because she is intrigued by the name of Castle Gaze. As she probes the" (what are secrets?*) "dark secrets of the castle's" (what are the residents?) "tortured

Like a mix of PG Wodehouse and English country house mystery on West End stage, with religious symbolism (unicorn=purity) thrown in. Unsettlingly creepy, but subtle and thought-provoking.