Pearson’s self-analysis raises the question of moral refinement. Part of Murdoch’s continuing influence stems from her continuation of the Aristotelian engagement of the moral imagination. One should also keep Aristotle in mind when reading Murdoch. Murdoch was a Plato scholar and Goldstein suggests the text can be understood as a reflection on Plato’s works on eros and art. The novel can be read as an engagement with Greek philosophy’s greats. One wonders if this novel can also be distinguished from stories of individuals who confuse desire for the transcendent with desire for an individual (i.e. Elsewhere, he directly combats the notion that this is a story of a would-be artist who confuses a desire for an individual for a desire to create. Despite the complicated familial relationships in the novel, his dismissal of Freudian interpretations of Hamlet as beside the point even if true also applies here.
Pearson (if not Murdoch) does an able job of warning against trivial interpretations of the story. Similar inconsistencies arise throughout.
The first significant piece of dialogue shifts “I may have just killed my wife” to “I may have just killed Rachel” in the first twenty pages. This fulfills early premonitions about Pearson’s unreliability as a narrator. Pearson and four other characters offer competing postscripts. Loxias and Pearson both write forewords to the main text. This allows Murdoch to address an audience directly, pausing for philosophical musings, without engaging in the post-modern trick of acknowledging the reader. The Black Prince is structured as Pearson’s apologia to his editor and friend P.A. Eros defeats art and the comic part of the novel ends tragedy predictably follows. Pearson falls in love and abandons his desire to leave London and his novel. On the third attempt, Pearson’s best friend and rival Arnold Baffin’s 20-year-old daughter rings. Each time he tries to leave, the doorbell rings and his work is delayed. The first half of the novel outlines Pearson’s attempts to escape to the countryside to work on his would-be great novel. The Black Prince is the story of Bradley Pearson, a 58-year-old retired Inspector of Taxes and author. Penguin Classics, 2003 (Originally published: 1973) Reviewed in this essay: The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch. Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince was the fourth entry on her list. This piece continues a series of reviews highlighting philosopher-novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s list of the best “novels of ideas”.
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