Oh dear, it’s only a couple of days since I posted my review of “The Black Prince” – I promise I’ll be starting the next read tomorrow! Fortunately, my lovely fellow Readalongers held onto their thoughts and shared them as soon as it was up, so there’s already a discussion going on on the review – do add your thoughts to that post, even if you’re coming to the book after January 2019, as I always love to hear what people think.
As well as the discussion on the review, Jo has done another of her excellent Goodreads reviews so do pop and read that here. I particularly enjoyed the quotes she shared at the end of the review.
Peter Rivenberg has come up proper trumps with his covers for this one – he has the Penguin edition after mine, a great US paperback (the very one that was thrown across a room, not by him!) and a collected edition (but when was that published and when did it go up to? Here we go …
The Warner Paperback Library first – who is the chap, and why is Julian meditating with a funny vase? Is it the vase that Bradley breaks bringing back from Bristol? But then how …
As Peter says, the back of the book shows what an event this was:
I have to say I have never seen footnotes on a blurb before – marvellous!
Here’s the Penguin Modern Classic
… and the promises of sex and violence on the back. OK, there is sex and violence, but this is a bit odd, isn’t it?
In fact there’s rather too much violence for my liking!
And the lovely colours of that collected edition
and it’s own blurb:
“The Sacred and Profane Love Machine”
I’m not sure what it is about this book, but although I’ve read it at least three times, and probably one more as I have a 1980s copy, I can only ever remember an awful lot of standing on lawns, looking into windows (which hardly distinguishes it from all the other novels) and the shocking thing near the end. So I’m interested to see what I make of it this time round. I did draw a relationship diagram in my notebook last time round which I will try to remember to share.
I have three copies of this: the first edition by Chatto and Windus, a Penguin reprinted in 1984 (so probably bought in about 1986 in my first rush of Murdoch reading) and the Vintage before last, as this is one they didn’t reprint with the red spines (it does at least have an introduction).
I find it interesting that they all have very similar looking and rather fussy cover images – I wonder what other people’s editions show.
A bit of blurb recycling going on as ever, too. Here’s the first edition’s flap:
Then the Penguin:
and then Vintage have read the first edition, I feel …
Are you going to be reading or re-reading “The Sacred and Profane Love Machine” along with me? Are you catching up with the others or have you given up)? What’s your favourite so far? Your least favourite?
You will find a page listing all of these blog posts here, updated as I go along.
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Feb 01, 2019 @ 14:18:09
Just found your blog! I’ve started a year long project of reading Iris once a month starting from Under the Net. I’ll have to come back and read your posts later : )
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Feb 01, 2019 @ 14:53:16
Oh, wonderful, welcome! Please do add your thoughts to my older posts (or link to your blog in the comments if you’re writing one) as you read them (there’s a link to the main page that collects links to all the reviews together at the bottom of this and every post on the project). And enjoy – have you read any before? How are you picking just 12 to read if you’re doing one per month for a year?
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Feb 01, 2019 @ 17:04:25
I’ve read some of Iris’ later works, I discovered her via Peter Conradi’s book on Buddhism.. This year I’m reading her novels in chronological order, one a month. I’m glad you’re also talking about the covers, I love good design, one of the pleasures of reading books as opposed to the Kindle.
My Iris posts are collected here : https://martinblack.com/2019-a-year-of-iris/
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Feb 02, 2019 @ 11:28:04
Oh, that’s an interesting way to have come to her! I do love all the different covers, some of the blurbs being very odd indeed, as are some of the cover images. Unfortunately I can’t access your blog as my computer is flagging it up as having malware issues and won’t let me – it is quite sensitive because I use it to work from home, but you might want to run checks just in case. A shame as I would like to read it.
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Feb 02, 2019 @ 13:48:58
oh, that’s a bit alarming! Do you mind if I ask which web browser you are using?
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Feb 01, 2019 @ 15:09:21
I plan to start The Sacred and Profane Love Machine soon. I don’t know much about it — only that Martin Amis slated it when he was a young whipper-snapper at the New Statesman (I remember reading that detail in Claire Tomalin’s autobiography!).
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Feb 02, 2019 @ 11:30:44
Exciting! I have tried to find that but it’s his collected essays and not on the NS website etc. Might track them down via the library as worth a read I’m sure. I look forward to hearing what you think of it!
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Feb 01, 2019 @ 16:28:36
‘Sacred & Profane’ disturbed me like no other of IM’s books. Her novels in the 70s seemed to have such a deep need to explore the dark side of love and obsession. Strange, because it seemed like such a peaceful time in her own life.
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Feb 02, 2019 @ 11:32:28
I try to keep to my reception theory of reading and not to relate it to the author’s life, but it is strange, isn’t it – maybe the peace gave her space to explore the undercurrents. I agree there are some dark themes and more thriller elements than you’d expect coming to her cold, as well as the obsessive love and unpleasantness. There should be a good discussion when I review it later in the month and I hope you can join in there.
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Feb 08, 2019 @ 20:43:28
A love story AND a thriller AND dazzling besides. Her blurb writers really pull out all the stops on those vintage editions, don’t they?! And, yet, she still seems to have such an imposing and intimidating reputation, years later.
I’m behind on a few of these, even the ones that I did find copies of (later), so I hope to catch up a little this spring!
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Feb 11, 2019 @ 08:30:27
I know – they’re so interesting, aren’t they! It is, however, all of these things! Her reputation is a shame – this feeling was shared by my readers in my research project, who actually found her a lot easier to approach than they’d expected. And of course I’ll be very glad to see your comments once you get to them, whenever that is!
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Aug 13, 2019 @ 17:56:02
In my own reread of IM I’ve just finished ‘The Black Prince’. I may have missed something, but I wondered: if Bradley has given the snuff box (“A Friend’s Gift”) to Julian who has never given it back, how come the thing is mentioned as being in Bradley’s room – “Towards evening Francis tiptoed in and put the bronze buffalo lady on the chimney piece in my bedroom beside *A Friend’s Gift*”?
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Aug 18, 2019 @ 11:21:04
Oh, that’s interesting, OK, so when Bradley encounters Julian in the street after she has run away from being locked up by her parents, she says they didn’t find this and shows him the piece. I read on from there and it doesn’t SAY, but I’m guessing that, having regretted giving it to her, he takes it back at that point.
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