The Sandcastle (1957)

Is it that I am 'getting' Iris Murdoch, or is it that I am (accidentally) choosing novels that I like better? It hardly matters, but I found this one hard to put down. It's hot, early summer and a young woman, already known as an accomplished painter, comes to do the portrait of the lately retired headmaster of St. Bride's, Demoyte. Bill Mor, a schoolmaster (and clearly one of the good ones) is among the first invited to meet her and they have an odd an intense encounter at Demoyte's house, Brayling Close, - which is as always to be found in an IM novel - a remarkable and beautiful house. They fall madly in love - for Mor a world of possibility is opened, a world he never imagined. He has always been dominated by his wife, a strong shrewd woman, and he sees now that he could break out.... so will he? He has two children that he misunderstands, a good friend that he doesn't know as well as he thinks he does, in fact Mor lives in a kind of fog, that lifts under the influence of the young painter (interestingly named Rain Carter). Everything comes to a head in the last quarter of the book and for me it was vivid and unputdownable. I'm rating it highly as I feel that every aspect of what goes into a good novel is at a high level, theme, character, momentum - there is also that hint of mystery - done with a very light hand here. The 'question' under consideration is when is love, especially 'being in love' not enough? Another question is what 'face' do we present to the world? Our real one or the one we wish it was? Yet another, can we read, in our own action or inaction, our true wishes, our true natures? I should also add that there was a good deal of humor - the boys at the school are lovingly described, as are the master ept and inept alike, the new headmaster is a worthy man but cheap and clumsy and this leads to farce upon occasion. I laughed out loud several times and chuckled many others. ***** ( )

A splendid early Iris Murdoch novel, with a deceptively simple plot about a married man falling in love with a clever young woman, providing scope for a lot of interesting speculation about the nature of relationships between people, the purpose of representation in art, the proper role of education, and of course the difficulty of building sandcastles on Mediterranean beaches. In between, there's a lot of ironic deflation of pretensions, some French farce, and a sinister gypsy who keeps turning up for no obvious reason.

While it seems likely that the "other woman" was modelled on herself, Murdoch perversely tells the story mostly from the husband's POV, and even more oddly chooses the very masculine world of a boys' boarding school as the setting for her story. There's even a cricket match scene: whilst her young heroine may feel obliged to apologise for turning up for a tour of the school in trousers, Murdoch is making no apologies here for trampling all over the privileged territory of British male writers. Perhaps not exactly the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of Angry Young Men, but certainly a bit of bucket and spade work to assist the action of the incoming tide... ( )

I can understand how some people don't take to Murdoch at all. There is a lot of naval-gazing going on in most of her books and not a great deal of action, but I just love her voice and the calm, poised way she writes and as far as I'm concerned she can (or I suppose I should say 'could') do no wrong. The Sandcastle is a fairly simple story about a forbidden love and a man tackling his mid-life crisis. As always in Murdoch's books, the real 'action' isn't in the events that take place, but in the emotions of the innocent people caught up in a tide of events over which they have no control. I'm not sure I will ever discover another Murdoch book quite as perfect as The Bell and The Sea, The Sea, my personal favourites, but this one comes close. ( )

Excellent novel, this Iris Murdoch's third novel to be published, is more domestic, and a much maturer work than her first two novels. School master William Mor, married to Nan, with two teenage children, a man with political ambitions, finds himself enchanted by Rain Carter the young woman who comes to paint the retired headmaster's portrait. It is interesting how as their relationship develops, Rain and Bill reamin totally sympathetic as characters, it is Nan - the wronged wife who it is impossible to like.

Vivid portrayal of an era when marriage breakdown was still viewed with disapproval. Brilliant character portrayal of the manipulative and vile wife. The 'other woman' was clearly Iris. ( )