The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch

Of course, like all of Iris Murdoch's novel, this one is completely wonderful. I don't know if I would say that it's one of my absolute favourites of hers because it takes a while to get started. All of her novels do, they seem extremely boring at first (despite this one starting with a suicide in Whitehall), and the first part is always taken up with introducing characters who I inevitably get confused in. I wasn't really riveted by this book until about halfway through, but once it gets going, it really gets going. It's fantastically tense, dark and disturbing, dealing with the uncontrollable and irrational desire, obsession, evil, cruelty, sadomasochism, and blackmail. Oh, and black magic (not actually, there's just someone who experiments with it). Bronzino's painting Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time figures prominently in the plot, which I loved because I relish books that interact with other works of art. As usual, the atmosphere and language were delightful to the highest degree, and I absolutely reveled in it. I wish I understood Murdoch's ideas about philosophy better, but as philosophy makes my head ache excruciatingly, I will be satisfied understanding bit and pieces.