The Sacred And Profane Love Machine - Softcover

Montague Small, an obsessive writer of detective thrillers, mourns his lately dead wife, who may or may not have been unfaithful to him. His attempts at meditation are a failure. He detests his fictional detective. His interest in his neighbour's difficulties and his neighbour's wife appear to be his only consolations after all. The neighbour, Blaise Gavender, is an amateur psychotherapist who has seen through himself. Has Blaise the courage to change his life and become an honest man? What is honesty in any case? Blaise's wife Harriet lives for love, love of her husband, love of her son. She if fond of Monty too. Emily McHugh is quite another matter. She too lives for love: for love and justice and revenge, aided and incited by her ambiguous friend Constance Pinn. Emily's son Luca, a very disturbed child, becomes the subject of a tug of war between two possessive women. Edgar Demornay, a distinguished scholar, also blunders into the fray; he adores Monty and falls in love with Monty's women. A deed of violence finally solves many problems. This is a story of different loves; and of how a man may need two women in such a way that he can be happy with neither. Sacred and profane love are related opposites; the one enjoyed renders the other necessary, so that the ever unsatisfied heart swings constantly to and fro.

'Of the novelists who have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable' Raymond Mortimer

Montague Small, an obsessive writer of detective thrillers, mourns his lately dead wife. His attempts at meditation are a failure. He detests his fictional detective. His interest in his neighbour's difficulties and his neighbour's wife appear to be his only consolations. The neighbour, Blaise Gavender, is an amateur psychotherapist. Has he the courage to change his life and become an honest man? What is honesty in any case? Blaise's wife Harriet lives for love, love of her husband, love of her son. She is fond of Monty too. This is a story of different loves; and of how a man may need two women in such a way that he can be happy with neither. Sacred and profane love are related opposites; the one enjoyed rendered the other necessary, so that the ever unsatisfied heart swings constantly too and fro.

'Iris Murdoch was one of the best and most influential writers of the twentieth century' Peter Conradi, Guardian