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The Message to the Planet

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The Message to the Planet

By: Iris Murdoch
Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
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For years, Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar in the belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind. Luden's friends are more sceptical. Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy. Gildas herne, ex-preist, thinks he is evil. Patrick Fenman, poet, is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him.

Marcus has disappeared and must be found. But he is a genius, a hero struggling at the bounds of human knowledge. Is he seeking God, or is he just another victim of the Holocaust, which casts its shadow upon him and upon Ludens, both of them Jewish? Can human thinking discover the foundations of human consciousness? Iris Murdoch's endlessly inventive imagination has touched a fundamental question of our time.

©1989 Iris Murdoch (P)2002 Phoenix Books Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

"Carrington MacDuffie gives a fantastic performance, carrying the book through cumbersome philosophical discussions and straightforward drama with equal ease. Each character has a distinct and appropriate voice, making the profuse dialogue a pleasure to hear. As the drama unfolds, along with the loves, betrayals, and intricate triangles, MacDuffie rises to the occasion, taking the listener along for the ride through Murdoch's strange world." ( AudioFile)

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Murdoch is an outstanding but now somewhat less read author from the late twentieth century. Her prose is a bit plodding but
her characterizations and psychological analyses are very absorbing. There is a very leisurely pace to her plotting that still holds my attention, reminding me a bit of Thomas Mann. She is very concerned with what each character is wearing at each entrance which is a very irritating element of her writing personality that I can let go but I noticed it more and more as I read . This novel is very like The Book and the Brotherhood as I remember it. The Sea The Sea is really Murdoch's masterpiece for my taste. Her fanatic genius character is well drawn here. I loved the narrator's reading.

Fanaticism in the English Countryside

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For seasoned readers of Iris Murdoch, no more need be said. The experience cannot be summarized. Certainly, no critique is worth anything.

For those who have not yet read an Iris Murdoch novel, no more can be said. You just have to read it and see where it takes you.

an Iris Murdoch novel

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