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Black Prince

Black Prince

General Fiction

(uk) Alice Murdoch

318K0

The smartest woman in Britain, winner of the Booker Prize and the most nominated writer for this award, is a masterpiece of emotional and philosophical novels. "The Black Prince" is a well-received and one of the most difficult works of Murdoch in his later period. The protagonist, Bradley, a writer in his late sixties, wants to escape the city and live in the countryside. Just before departure, his ex-wife's brother arrives unexpectedly. From this moment on, he is fatally trapped in endless nightmares: harassment by his ex-wife; insanity of his sister who was abandoned by her husband; his old friend's wife has a secret love for him; and the most hopeless thing, which is also the core of the story, is that he had an unfaithful love affair with his old friend's daughter, and eventually died unjustly in prison. In this novel, which is highly integrated with philosophy and art, the postmodernist experimental technique with the self-deconstruction of the text as its prominent feature is worth studying and pondering. While constructing his own narrative world, the author deconstructs this world through self-explanation or commentary, making up fictions while exposing them, subverting the tradition of authors hiding behind the fictional world in novel creation.

Unicorn

Unicorn

General Fiction

(uk) Alice Murdoch

170K0

"The Smartest Woman in Britain" is the early masterpiece of Alice Murdoch, the most nominated writer for the Booker Prize. It has a gloomy and unique style, full of mysterious imagination and existential philosophy. A kaleidoscope of ever-changing sexual relationships, a beautiful young woman imprisoned for seven years, an evil husband who pursues the same sex, a cowardly and voyeuristic old lover... Everyone in this book is involved in sin, and everyone is waiting for the final judgment to come. "The Unicorn" ostensibly tells a sophisticated, mysterious gothic romance. The protagonist Hannah was first a vicious adulteress who committed adultery with others and pushed her husband off a cliff. Then she transformed into Jesus Christ, who carries the imagination of countless people, has no desires and desires, is willing to bear all sins, and is willing to sacrifice his life for the world to atone for their sins. And when the savior suddenly turned into a real individual because of her husband's imminent return, an evil woman who committed adultery and tried to murder her husband, the spiritual castle in the air created by her and everyone's imagination about her collapsed instantly... The whole book has twists and turns, vivid and even romantic and mysterious stories, and is also enveloped in a religious and philosophical atmosphere where everything is unpredictable and everyone is absurd, which is both fascinating and thought-provoking.