Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant philosopher with a talent for self-destruction, Mason Ambrose has torpedoed a promising academic career and now faces a dead-end future. Before joining the ranks of the unemployed, however, he's approached by a representative of billionaire geneticist Dr. Edwina Sabacthani, who makes him an offer no starving ethicist could refuse. Born and bred on Isla de Sangre, a private island off the Florida coast, Edwina's beautiful and intelligent adolescent daughter, Londa, has recently survived a freak accident that destroyed both her memory and her sense of right and wrong. Londa's soul, in short, is an empty vessel and it will be Mason's job to fill it.
Exploring his new surroundings, our hero encounters a lush Eden abounding in bizarre animals and strange vegetation engineered by Edwina and her misanthropic collaborator, Dr. Vincent Charnock. And Londa, though totally lacking a conscience, proves a vivacious young woman who quickly captivates her new teacher as he attempts to recalibrate her moral compass with the help of Western civilization's greatest ethical thinkers, living and dead.
But there's trouble in this tropical paradise. Mason soon learns that he isn't the only private tutor on Isla de Sangre, nor is Londa the only child in residence whose conscience is a blank slate. How many daughters does Edwina Sabacthani really have, and how did she bring them into being?
Undaunted by these mysteries, Mason continues to instruct Londa, hoping that she can lead a normal life when she eventually ventures forth into human society. His apprentice, however, has a different agenda. Her head crammed with lofty ideals, her heart brimming with fearsome benevolence, and her bank account filled to bursting, Londa undertakes to remake our fallen world in her own image by any and all means necessary.
Review
"[A] tumultuous take on humanity, philosophy and ethics that is as hilarious as it is outlandish....[A] wildly ambitious morality play, a shrewd amalgamation of the sacred and the profane. Tips its hat with style to Mary Shelley and George Bernard Shaw." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] brilliant comedy of manners....Morrow is an inventive writer possessing a fine comic sensibility; the story is infused with wit and brio....Enthusiastically recommended." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Morrow's intellectual fervor irradiates The Philosopher's Apprentice, but the warmth and empathy that characterized The Last Witchfinder is absent. Satire needs to sing as well as sting." Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)
Synopsis
For Mason Ambrose, a failed philosopher with lots of smarts but not much common sense, the prospect of tutoring a lonely adolescent for a small fortune seems irresistible. But all is not as it seems, in this beguiling book from one of America's premier satirists.
About the Author
James Morrow is the author of nine previous novels, including The Last Witchfinder. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.