A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Dec 5, 2025 4:41 PM

Author:Iris Murdoch

In this dark comedy of errors, Iris Murdoch portrays the mischief wrought by Julius, a cynical intellectual who decides to demonstrate through a Machiavellian experiment how easily loving couples, caring friends, and devoted siblings can betray their loyalties.

As puppet master, Julius artfully plays on the human tendency to embrace drama and intrigue and to prefer the distraction of confrontations to the difficult effort of communicating openly and honestly.

Reviews

The most important novelist writing in my time

—— A.S. Byatt

A distinguished novelist of a very rare kind

—— Kingsley Amis

Of all the novelists that have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable-behind her books one feels a power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist

—— Sunday Times

Brook's debut is one of quiet miracles... implictly in the marvellous way he is able to convince us of the power of faith

—— Sunday Times

The accomplished patterns and Brook's easy style form a readable and poetic first novel

—— Guardian

Subtle and sublime. Brook's novel is far out of the ordinary run...

—— Western Mail

As fresh as spring water

—— Daily Telegraph

The ambiguous and tantalizing ending to this original and exciting story signals a sequel.

—— School Librarian

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