I was pleased to have read and reviewed “Henry and Cato” on time again, mid-month, and we’ve had a nice lively discussion with some dissent as to whether we liked it more, less or just the same than other readings of this book and other books in the oeuvre. I love all the different aspects that people pick out.
Jo has done her usual careful and thoughtful Goodreads review – I think she’s the only person reading all the books through but for the first time, and it’s fascinating to read her progress. There’s a great review on Buried in Print and I agree with the comment on letters! Do pop your comments on the review post even if you’re coming to this a bit late – I’d love this project to live on and be something people decide to undertake in the future!
Peter Rivenberg has a hardback Viking American first edition with a mysterious mythological scene, presumably of Persephone going into the underworld (is that Colette’s fate?):
The Sea, The Sea
On to “The Sea, The Sea” and a real treat: I suspect I have read this one more than three times already and, as the Booker winner, it’s one I recommend to IM newbies. My husband read and really enjoyed it.
I have the requisite three copies (not long and I will only have two of some of them!), a Chatto and Windus first edition, a Triad Granada paperback reprinted in 1987 (making me 15, about when I did read it first) and the new Vintage classic:
I do love the first edition cover and look at the back cover!
On to the blurbs, and the first edition gets it right:
then the Triad Granada reworks this, including removing some commas …
(I love the quotes from the Spectator, the New Statesman and … Vogue!)
and the Vintage one gives up a bit:
By the way, in my opinion this book has one of the best final paragraphs in literature.
Are you going to be reading or re-reading “The Sea, The Sea” along with me? Are you catching up with the others or have you given up? What’s your favourite so far? Your least favourite? Do you have a photo to share of you reading one of the books, or where you read it?
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 
Apr 30, 2019 @ 22:37:34
I tried to read The Sea, The Sea when I was…fifteen (yeah, I don’t know why either), and it defeated me. Perhaps I ought to try again. It sounds much more enticing to me eleven years on!
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May 01, 2019 @ 09:09:45
I read loads of them in my mid-to-late teens and can’t really work out what I understood of them. You will probably get a lot more out of it now – do give it a go and link to your review!
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May 01, 2019 @ 16:31:51
Oddly, this is possibly the Murdoch I’ve most often considered having another go with. I failed twice with Under the Net but I would like to try again. Maybe over the summer hols….
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May 01, 2019 @ 16:34:40
Oh do have a go and you know by now you can come over and link to your review on my review any time, however not the month I read it in it is!
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State of the TBR May 2019 (plus book confessions!) | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
May 01, 2019 @ 20:53:55
May 01, 2019 @ 21:56:50
I’m coming to all my Murdoch’s completely fresh – only this one and the Book and the Brotherhood to go (for me).
This is the IM that has been on my TBR pile the longest, purchased for my Booker project in 2012 when the lovely vintage covers became available.
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May 02, 2019 @ 07:20:23
The Vintage is a lovely cover, isn’t it, although I love the original. You have two of the best ones in the whole lot to come – exciting! Brave Jo has been through every one with us and not been put off by some of the peculiar ones!
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May 06, 2019 @ 11:12:04
Henry and Cato may be my favorite of her novels (that whole Diana and Acteon reference!). I’ve read her entire canon, and I’m working my way through it a second time (just finished The Nice and the Good), so I’ll be approaching H&C soon.
I’m glad I live in a world with Iris Murdoch novels!
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May 06, 2019 @ 11:36:47
I know, me, too, and that I’ve found a community of her readers after a long time as a lone voice in my circles!! If you have the inclination, adding a note on some of the reviews (see the main post, linked here, to find them all) about your experiences re-reading would be fascinating for me – I’m finding a lot of changes in my attitudes and experiences this (fourth) time round.
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May 12, 2019 @ 15:39:17
I’ve got fewer than 100 pages to read in Henry and Cato now (and will include it eventually in a reading log post – will let you know the URL when it’s live). When I first began, I thought the pair of men’s voices immediately engaging but the edition got the better of me (such teeny tiny print) so I had to change where/how I was reading and am now, at last, on a roll with it. It’s unlikely that I will reread The Sea, The Sea (although I really enjoyed it at the time and it did not feel anywhere near as long as I feared that it would when I first saw the page count). Instead, I’ve managed to find a couple of the other books that I was missing second-hand, in the interim, so I will choose one of those instead, to kind of catch up.
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May 12, 2019 @ 16:25:11
Oh brilliant! Sorry about the edition, though – they can be really tricky. How lovely that you’ve found some more – do add your thoughts or links on the relevant pages when you’ve read them. Which ones did you find?
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May 12, 2019 @ 18:05:57
It’s my own copy so it’s not like i didn’t know that going in, but sometimes I think it’s as much about the other books in the stack and when they are all tiny then one of them gets left behind. Now I’m reading some classic kidlit so the print is lovely in those and I don’t mind squinting at Iris!
Flight of the Enchanter and The Red and the Green and I’d intended to read Accidental Man but got the timing wrong somehow… also, I have a couple of the ones after TS, TS in the wings too.
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May 13, 2019 @ 09:12:32
Some good stuff, then! maybe you can fit the older ones in the gaps where you don’t have the new ones. I’m just happy people read them, I’m not too bothered about timings, and I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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May 13, 2019 @ 14:12:42
It’d be fun to finish with everyone else because some of the characters make such foolish decisions (being human and all) and it’d be fun to poke at them in company, but I agree, better late than never! 🙂
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Jun 29, 2021 @ 23:58:12