My first Iris Murdoch, due to her reputation I expected quality literature,but dear me, it was like reading a mills & boon, such empty boring characters sooo predictable I hope her other books are better & that her reputation is deserved, but I shan't be finding out, there's plenty other fish in the sea. The only reason I gave it 2 stars is for the portrayal of Upper Middle Class English Culture of the 50's YAWN...

I've always liked this novel, though it isn't what I would call Murdoch's best. I found it to be much gentler than her other novels: there isn't any of the astounding weirdness of The Good Apprentice or The Severed Head: no incest, no murder, no wife-swapping.

As a result, it is an interesting novel to read for the change of pace it offers in the body of her work. It offers perhaps a subtler take on repeated Murdochian themes of betrayl and alienation--artistic, intellectual, marital, sexual, and so forth.

I have always wondered why A.S. Byatt chose to highlight The Sandcastle in her book about women's writing _Imagining Characters_; perhaps Byatt sees some of the same qualities in the story that I do.

I found this small, small book terrible boring. May be I did not grasp the truly meaning of the book! But I did not like it. The only interesting aspect of it is a pale view of Irland in the middle of twenty century.