The Good Apprentice

Nov 28, 2025 6:22 AM

Author:Iris Murdoch

The Good Apprentice

Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity and his motives. Stuart's step-brother Edward Baltram is tormented by guilt because he has, he believes, killed his best friend. He dreams sometimes of redemption, sometimes of suicide. Funny, compelling and extremely moving, THE GOOD APPRENTICE is about guilt ridden despair, and the difficult problem of how to try to be good - and the various magical devices which console those who are sensible enough not to try.

Reviews

Spellbinding . . . you just keep turning the pages, with the atmosphere growing more and more intense as the story leads to its dramatic climax

—— The Daily Mail

One of the cornerstones of the Western literary canon

—— The Times

Proust isn't just the most profound of novelists, but the most entertaining, too

—— Independent

The way he replicates the workings of the mind changed the art of novel-writing forever...his style is extraordinary, enveloping, captivating

—— Guardian

The plot is as gripping as any soap opera, the jokes come thick and fast...Proust's is a world entire - so why not take it with you anywhere in the world?

—— Will Self , Independent on Sunday

The way he replicates the workings of the mind changed the art of novel-writing forever...his style is extraordinary, enveloping, captivating

—— Guardian

My favourite novel... You expect a boring novel about Edwardian marriages. This could not be more misleading. It’s a gothic melodrama with a high body count

—— Ned Beauman , Guardian

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