If you want to see pretentious English middle class twits destroyed by their own egotism and stupidity this is the book for you. JULIUS KING, my favourite character in litertature, plays with just these traits to reveal, both to us and the characters themselves, how pointless, false and horrible their lives really are. I found this novel a wonderful misanthropic joy to read and was particularly pleased by Murdoch's courage in her ending of the story. ( )

Bought ?1990s

Our current Murdoch A Month read and I managed to pull my muzzy head together enough to get through it, mini-postits and pencil at the ready. The now usual middle-class, educated cast are messed around, pulled between two poles of the devilish and the sainted. When one character really decides to use his powers to see what happens, mayhem ensues, amusing at first but darker and darker.

Lots to talk about here and a well-crafted story. Whose marriage comes out best, or even intact? ( )

A dark and compelling tale of good and evil. Julius is a puppet master who skillfully manages to disrupt the lives of those around him. With cunning cynism he weaves around these previously happy people a drama that has them each acting to Julius's will. A real pager turner from Murdoch, this one. I though Julius was absolutley vile, and wanted to jump up and down on his head ( )

I always feel, when I read Murdoch, that I'm missing the big philosophical 'point' (or points) of her novels, which I'm not clever or observant enough to pick up. The trouble is that I expect her novels to be dry, to consist only of philosophical ponderings, and then every time I read another one I'm surprised by how compelling her storylines are, and I get so caught up in the story and the characters that I lose sight of any deeper intent.

There is often a touch of the lurid to her plots, which makes them rather fun. This particular novel is dominated by the malignant presence of Julius, a man with considerable disdain for the human race, largely disguised from his friends by his cleverness and urbane manner. For the sheer hell of it, it seems, he takes it upon himself to interfere in two relationships - the relatively recent one of Axel and Simon, and the longstanding marriage of Hilda and Rupert (Rupert being Simon's brother). His sense of mischief is kick-started, it seems, by his feelings of irritation for Rupert, whose goodness he refuses to believe is genuine. That human beings are flawed is a given, but Julius takes it a step further and seems to want to believe that even the best of people is a hypocrite, and that perfectly natural flaws are incompatible with goodness.

Axel and Simon come through the trial stronger as a couple, but Hilda and Rupert never get the chance to be reconciled, as Rupert dies (an accident? suicide?) while Hilda is away. Julius survives seemingly unscathed - hardly fair, but then, life isn't, and the 'baddies' don't always get their just desserts. I suppose one can at least wish upon him a lonely old age, but he has such charm that it's quite easy to imagine him charming someone into looking after him, if it came to that.

There are basically two types of women in Murdoch's novel. The first sort, the neurotic, needy bitch, is represented in this novel by Hilda's sister Morgan. Hilda herself is the second type of Murdoch woman - domesticated, benign, inoffensive, a bit stupid (not an intellectual, at any rate, which in Murdoch-land amounts to much the same thing). Neither type is particularly likeable, but then neither are her callow youths (Peter, in this novel) or her worldly cynics (Julius). However, one doesn't need to like Murdoch's characters to enjoy reading about what happens to them - even when what happens to them is sometimes farcical, and often gloriously melodramatic. [Sept 2004] ( )

Julius King diabolically toys with everyone around him . . . It's comedic, but dark! ( )