II.
We open Book to a midsummer's ball at Oxford University. Through this chapter devoted to the ball, Murdoch introduces us to the characters that will concern us most in the novel. The brotherhood is a group of fellow Oxford graduates: Gerard Hernshaw, Jenkin Riderhood, Duncan Cambus, Jean Kowitz Cambus and Rose Curtland. The book is a promised work of philosophy, by an Oxford graduate of Scottish birth, David Crimond. Hernshaw and the others first met Crimond as undergraduates, eventually forming a "brotherhood" to financially aid Crimond in finishing his book.
By the time of the ball, both Crimond and the brotherhood have slid into middle age. This passage of time, among other things, has served to underscore that Crimond's book remains unfinished, while its author in recent years has become detached and removed from the people who continue to finance his efforts. The night of the ball marks Crimond's return; his reappearance is noted in the very first sentence of the novel. "David Crimond is here in a
kilt!" <1>
In a kilt, and come to dance. "Crimond danced with a magisterial precision, his torso stiff, his shoulders held well back, as taut as a bow...he reminded Gerard of one of the tall Greek kouroi in the Acropolis museum". Gerard's observation also speaks of an opposition between the two men - Gerard the Platonist, David the Marxist. Crimond's dance partner is Jean Cambus, and before the ball has concluded, Jean will have eloped with Crimond for a second time. Also for a second time, Crimond will get the better of Jean's husband in a fight, on the same evening, by shoving Duncan Cambus into the college river Cherwell.
III.
Jean Cambus first committed adultery with Crimond years earlier in Ireland. Before that encounter, Murdoch had already told us that Duncan Cambus is "stout and tall...his big shoulders gave a look of menacing power". And yet, when matters come to a physical confrontation over Jean and David's affair, it is Crimond who emerges the victor. "Crimond punched Duncan as hard as he could...Duncan fell back and tumbled down the spiral staircase into the room below".
Jean eventually returned to Duncan, asking forgiveness. As Duncan is helpless in his love for Jean, he forgave her. Marital harmony follows until the Oxford ball, when Jean runs off with Crimond, again.
What manner of a person is David Crimond that he can entice the same woman to twice betray her husband through adulterous relations? Here, Murdoch's Slavic influences surface, as she has lent Crimond the charisma of a fierce-eyed radical intellectual in a 19th century Russian novel. He is profoundly obsessive about the things that concern him, whether it's his form of Marxism, or a woman he happens to desire. Murdoch suggests that it is the ruthless edge of Crimond's passions that Jean Cambus finds so specially exciting.
Crimond is a Marxist, but Murdoch reveals a Nietzschean strain in him as well. "We are fat with false morality and inwardness and authenticity and decayed Christianity", Crimond declares at one point; or, "Truth may have to appear as a lie - that we are sick with morality, that morality is a disease to be got over", quotes Rose Curtland from one of Crimond's pamphlets. <2>
Having identified Nietzschean tendencies in Crimond, Murdoch probes further and shows us Nothing. David and Jean's second affair builds to unexpected endings: Crimond actually finishes writing the book the brotherhood have sought for so long; Crimond then calmly proposes a lovers' suicide pact for he and Jean. "Now that the book is gone there is nothing left but our love. You are the motive, the blessing...You make death possible...that is eternal life", says Crimond.
Jean responds to Crimond's rhetoric by calling it "sickening romantic nonsense". But as ever, Crimond ultimately has his way with her. The pact is planned by Crimond so that Jean and David will crash their cars head-on at high speed, on a deserted country road. "As she began to accelerate Jean felt a sudden surge of energy, something very intense, perhaps fear, perhaps joy, perhaps, in the depths of her body, a prolonged sexual thrill". At the very last moment, however, it's Jean that is unable to carry out the pact, veering from the road.
Furious with Jean that she could not go through with killing them both, Crimond ends their relationship right there by her car, which has been ruined when running off the road at speed. Jean is then left to walk for help, as Crimond drives off, abandoning Jean by the roadside.
IV.
There is much more to this rich novel than David Crimond and his affair with Jean Cambus. Murdoch is both shrewd and sympathetic when detailing the other intrigues of the brotherhood, and those in its immediate circle. It's just that we are seldom as engrossed in Murdoch's narrative than when she is considering Crimond, a Crimond through her art. With cool irony, Murdoch bares the nihilism in Crimond's soul.
V.
By the time of Book, the brilliant novels of Iris Murdoch already included The Black Prince, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, and The Sea, The Sea (1978 Booker Prize). The Book and The Brotherhood is not diminished if we should compare to those earlier Murdoch triumphs.
__________
<1>Murdoch, Iris. The Book and The Brotherhood. 1988: Viking USA.
<2>For a provocative discussion of Marx, Nietzsche and the Left, see the chapter "The Nietzscheanization of the Left or Vice Versa", in Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind (1987). Nietzsche also appears passim in Closing.
In a kilt, and come to dance. "Crimond danced with a magisterial precision, his torso stiff, his shoulders held well back, as taut as a bow...he reminded Gerard of one of the tall Greek kouroi in the Acropolis museum". Gerard's observation also speaks of an opposition between the two men - Gerard the Platonist, David the Marxist. Crimond's dance partner is Jean Cambus, and before the ball has concluded, Jean will have eloped with Crimond for a second time. Also for a second time, Crimond will get the better of Jean's husband in a fight, on the same evening, by shoving Duncan Cambus into the college river Cherwell.
III.
Jean Cambus first committed adultery with Crimond years earlier in Ireland. Before that encounter, Murdoch had already told us that Duncan Cambus is "stout and tall...his big shoulders gave a look of menacing power". And yet, when matters come to a physical confrontation over Jean and David's affair, it is Crimond who emerges the victor. "Crimond punched Duncan as hard as he could...Duncan fell back and tumbled down the spiral staircase into the room below".
Jean eventually returned to Duncan, asking forgiveness. As Duncan is helpless in his love for Jean, he forgave her. Marital harmony follows until the Oxford ball, when Jean runs off with Crimond, again.
What manner of a person is David Crimond that he can entice the same woman to twice betray her husband through adulterous relations? Here, Murdoch's Slavic influences surface, as she has lent Crimond the charisma of a fierce-eyed radical intellectual in a 19th century Russian novel. He is profoundly obsessive about the things that concern him, whether it's his form of Marxism, or a woman he happens to desire. Murdoch suggests that it is the ruthless edge of Crimond's passions that Jean Cambus finds so specially exciting.
Crimond is a Marxist, but Murdoch reveals a Nietzschean strain in him as well. "We are fat with false morality and inwardness and authenticity and decayed Christianity", Crimond declares at one point; or, "Truth may have to appear as a lie - that we are sick with morality, that morality is a disease to be got over", quotes Rose Curtland from one of Crimond's pamphlets. <2>
Having identified Nietzschean tendencies in Crimond, Murdoch probes further and shows us Nothing. David and Jean's second affair builds to unexpected endings: Crimond actually finishes writing the book the brotherhood have sought for so long; Crimond then calmly proposes a lovers' suicide pact for he and Jean. "Now that the book is gone there is nothing left but our love. You are the motive, the blessing...You make death possible...that is eternal life", says Crimond.
Jean responds to Crimond's rhetoric by calling it "sickening romantic nonsense". But as ever, Crimond ultimately has his way with her. The pact is planned by Crimond so that Jean and David will crash their cars head-on at high speed, on a deserted country road. "As she began to accelerate Jean felt a sudden surge of energy, something very intense, perhaps fear, perhaps joy, perhaps, in the depths of her body, a prolonged sexual thrill". At the very last moment, however, it's Jean that is unable to carry out the pact, veering from the road.
Furious with Jean that she could not go through with killing them both, Crimond ends their relationship right there by her car, which has been ruined when running off the road at speed. Jean is then left to walk for help, as Crimond drives off, abandoning Jean by the roadside.
IV.
There is much more to this rich novel than David Crimond and his affair with Jean Cambus. Murdoch is both shrewd and sympathetic when detailing the other intrigues of the brotherhood, and those in its immediate circle. It's just that we are seldom as engrossed in Murdoch's narrative than when she is considering Crimond, a Crimond through her art. With cool irony, Murdoch bares the nihilism in Crimond's soul.
V.
By the time of Book, the brilliant novels of Iris Murdoch already included The Black Prince, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, and The Sea, The Sea (1978 Booker Prize). The Book and The Brotherhood is not diminished if we should compare to those earlier Murdoch triumphs.
__________
<1>Murdoch, Iris. The Book and The Brotherhood. 1988: Viking USA.
<2>For a provocative discussion of Marx, Nietzsche and the Left, see the chapter "The Nietzscheanization of the Left or Vice Versa", in Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind (1987). Nietzsche also appears passim in Closing.
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