The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

by Iris Murdoch

Book Overview

Swinging between his wife and his mistress in the sacred and profane love machine and between the charms of morality and the excitements of sin, the psychotherapist, Blaise Gavender, sometimes wishes he could divide himself in two. Instead, he lets loose misery and confusion and for the spectators at any rate a morality play, rich in reflections upon the paradoxes of human life and the nature of the battle between sacred and profane love."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140041117
• ISBN13: 9780140041118
• Release Date: March 1984
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 365 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Ruthless, perhaps evil, this is a pornography of the soul

No sex, no violence, but pornography in the highest artistic sense: it is about the irredeemable. The worthless, the evil, the basest and most foul, while simulteneously exalting the pure aspects of love, even as it denigrates them. If you can keep yourself from shuddering while Pinn speaks to Monty in his bedroom, then you need serious mental attention.

An excellent novel

Iris Murdoch's books aren't for everyone: they are for sensitive, intellectual, and introspective readers. I read this one a few months ago, and was very impressed with the quality of the writing, the complexity of the characters' personalities, and the pervasive exploration of their different viewpoints and feelings as the story unfolds. Not only is this book intelligent and insightful, it is also entertaining, and never slow-going. My only criticism concerns the two somewhat "fabulous" accidents which take place near the end. An excellent novel nevertheless.

Murdoch on love and betrayal

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine describes the spectacular unravelling of two families at the hands of Blaise Gavender. The first family is his own "legitimate" one, comprising his wife Harriet and son David. The other is his lover Emily and their son Luca. A weary and cynical novelist,the newly widowed Montague Small, is the unwilling observer and intermediary of this melange. We see a recurring exploration of the meaning of love when the faults of the lovers suddenly become overwhelming and the only options are forgiveness or alienation.As in her other books, Murdoch's characters are complex, their motivations tangled by alternating emotional currents of elation, despair, and futility.