Product Description
Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of good and bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions - and her own conclusions - can be found in the Sovereignty of Good. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Difficult but Worthwhile
The nature of goodness is an issue today in the writings of Iris Murdoch. The Sovereignty of Good includes three essays by her. In reading her essay, "The Sovereignty of Good over other concepts", I found her returning to the allegory of the cave and the metaphor of the Sun that I first read in Plato. Murdoch claims that "'Good is a transcendent reality' means that virtue is the attempt to pierce the veil of selfish consciousness and join the world as it really is." (p 91) For Murdoch this is a claim that Art is the way that humans can reach this unity in that,
"The mind which has ascended to the vision of the Good can subsequently see concepts through which it has ascended (art, work, nature, people, ideas, institutions, situations, etc.) in their true nature and in their proper relationships to each other." (p 92)
The discussion of the good by Iris Murdoch reconsiders this and other themes found in Marcus Aurelius and Plato. It is a difficult but worthwhile read.

The return of Platonic realism
It might seem odd that the other review of this book ('Lucid and brilliant') describes her moral philosophy as "a kind of Anglican conservatism" since Dame Iris was an atheist. However, I have to agree that she could largely stand in the tradition of Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752), the great Anglican theologian and philosopher, who largely represents what might be considered traditional English or Anglican moral ethics. The similarities are due to the fact that Murdoch, while an atheist, was not a materialist by any means. She was a Platonist -- in about as pure a sense as you can imagine -- and Platonism was/is highly influential in Anglican (not to mention, Roman Catholic) thought. While she does tweak Plato a bit, her moral realism is amazingly congruent with that of Plato. For instance, she speaks much of the Good as that which we must direct our attention and even love towards. Naturally, she attacks the dominant moral theories of the modern era -- deontological/Kantian and utilitatarian ethics -- in much the same way that G.E.M. Anscombe did in her essay, "Modern Moral Philosophy" (1958), which revived virtue ethics. If you enjoy Miss Anscombe or other similar, pro-metaphysical moral philosophers of the 20th century (such as Simone Weil or Alasdair MacIntyre), then you will surely enjoy this book.

In 1992, Iris Murdoch (who mostly wrote novels) expanded her ideas on ethics in her book, 'Metaphysics As a Guide to Morals.' This is a much larger work and would greatly benefit from reading The Sovereignty of Good first. All of her essential moral concepts are found in The Sovereignty of Good, in a clear and succinct manner. However, her views, like all philosophies, are not without criticisms. The best collection of critical (both positive and negative) essays on her work is 'Iris Murdoch and the Search for Human Goodness,' which was born out of a conference on Iris Murdoch held at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1994. It includes essays by some of today's leading moral philosophers and theologians, including Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Stanley Hauerwas, and William Schweiker. For a full treatment of Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy, see Maria Antonaccio's 'Picturing the Human: The Moral Thought of Iris Murdoch.' Both of these books are excellent and essential for anyone doing an academic study of Dame Iris.

Lucid and brilliant
Murdoch's clarity and keenness as a thinker are everywhere evident in the three essays that comprise this short book.It is at once a kind of paeanto common sense and an intricate philosophical working-through offundamental human dillemmas.

In the subject of moral philosophy, Murdochclearly comes down on the side of what many might feel to be a kind ofAnglican conservatism, though a careful reading will, I think, reveal thedeep sense of connectedness and love which inform her thinking. Inparticular, the book offers a fertile critique of central concepts inexistential thought, and of the moral relativism which postmodernphilosophy can sometimes engender.

Readers of her novels in particularwill appreciate this glimpse of Murdoch's philosophical thought, and willnotice how it informs her craft as an artist. ... Read more

Product Description
Iris Murdoch has long been known as one of the most deeply insightful and morally passionate novelists of our time. This attention has often eclipsed Murdoch's sophisticated and influential work as a philosopher, which has had a wide-ranging impact on thinkers in moral philosophy as well as religious ethics and political theory. Yet it has never been the subject of a book-length study in its own right.Picturing the Human seeks to fill this gap. In this groundbreaking book, author Maria Antonaccio presents the first systematic and comprehensive treatment of Murdoch's moral philosophy. Unlike literary critical studies of her novels, it offers a general philosophical framework for assessing Murdoch's thought as a whole. Antonaccio also suggests a new interpretive method for reading Murdoch's philosophy and outlines the significance of her thought in the context of current debates in ethics. This vital study will appeal to those interested in moral philosophy, religious ethics, and literary criticism, and grants those who have long loved Murdoch's novels a closer look at her remarkable philosophy. ... Read more

Product Description
With remarkable tenderness, John Bayley recreates his passionate love affair with Iris Murdoch--world-renowned writer and philosopher, and his wife of forty-two years--and poignantly describes the dimming of her brilliance due to Alzheimer's disease. Elegy for Iris is a story about the ephemeral beauty of youth and the sobering reality of what it means to grow old, but its ultimate power is that Bayley discovers great hope and joy in his celebration of Iris's life and their love. In its grasp of life's frailty and its portrayal of one of the great literary romances of this century, Elegy for Iris is a mesmerizing work of art that will be read for generations.
Amazon.com Review
In one of literary history's ghastlier ironies, Iris Murdoch,the author of such highly intellectual and philosophical novels as A Severed Head andUnder the Net, was diagnosed in 1994 with Alzheimer's disease,which slowly destroys reasoning powers, memory, even the ability tospeak coherently. Her husband, English literary critic John Bayley,unsparingly depicts his wife's affliction in prose as elegant andaccessible as hers always was. Readers may wince at the spectacle ofMurdoch glued to the TV watching the Teletubbies program,unable to perform tasks as simple as dressing herself and prey todevastating anxiety as the world becomes less and less comprehensibleto her. We understand Bayley's occasional fits of rage when hiscaretaking chores overwhelm him. Yet in the end his memoir istouching, even inspiring. As he recalls their first meetings andmarriage in the 1950s, it becomes clear that theirs was always anunconventional union, in which solitude was as important to each ofthem as togetherness and Bayley was content to let Murdoch keep herinner life to herself. He loves Iris, the woman, not the intellect,and he conveys an essential sweetness about his wife that endures evenas her mental faculties deteriorate. This totally unsentimentalaccount of their life and her illness is nonetheless aheartbreaker. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Tolstoy and Teletubbies
My guess is that readers will take from this book what they need. It is sweet, gentle, and kind to Iris in her illness, and Bayley is very hard on himself for the times when he simply can't stand the repetition and mulishness of her dementia. I was affected, reading this, because the loss of a mind like hers is a tragic thing, but what engaged me more was the study of how the marriage between John Bayley and Iris Murdoch worked. How does a mind like hers claim and hold the intellectual privacy needed to write what and how she did while being married? And how does a thinking man deal with being married to a woman who is his intellectual superior? These are the real questions explored in this book, and while writing it, Bayley offer up a portrait of himself that fascinated me almost as much as his portrait of his wife.

He was drawn to her seriousness, her earnestness, but she was drawn to the childish play he offered. He is baffled by this in the beginning, but as the years go on, the private, personal nature of this bond delights him. Their shared language, the private terms that arise from their years of intimately shared observation, their friends and travels; all this is echoed by the absolute chaos of their domestic arrangements. The accretion and accumulation of their life together is matched by piles of domestic clutter that turn into garbage as it sits, their homes falling down around their ears, their gardens in disarray. I'm not sure why this satisfied me as much as it repelled me. Something about the accumulated chaos of it all fed her work.

It is heartbreaking to read his descriptions of her watching Teletubbies, and amusing in a very bleak way. But along the way, he shares with the reader that Iris Murdoch lacked the capacity for introspection, she was the least narcissistic person he ever knew, and nearly vacant of a sense of "self." This is perhaps the greatest tribute he pays his wife in this book. Despite her decades of writing complicated, important fiction, and her contributions to philosophy, she didn't care all all if she "mattered." She thought, she wrote, she lived, she died. In a world overrun by egoism, self-promotion and the cult of the self, I find this absolutely breathtaking.

thoughtful and enjoyable though sad
Clearly this is the best book of the three JB has written on Iris and her "friends and memories". The meaning of both are ambiguous since the books describe both people the two knew as well as abstract friends that are part of Alzheimer's. The memories are more certainly those of JB of course. He is the author. Most puzzling is his question concerning what memories Iris still had while her ability to communicate seemed to have gone. When a person has Alzheimer's is the internal world gone as well as the ability to express one's thoughts to others? This is tragic in the sense that Iris was always living in two worlds and in the end only lived in her own world so that the bridge was no longer there - or a worse tragedy, that she had already reached the precipice and gone over. Only her body was left perhaps. But this book, the first of the three JB wrote in this mode does focus more than the others and gives us more insights into Iris then the others. There are still plenty of his own memories that only include Iris as an end piece, though often the memory nicely elucidates some characteristic of the relationship JB has with Iris or a characteristic of Iris herself so they are nice. In general the book is thoughtful and enjoyable though sad.

Detached and disappointing
I found it to be extremely slow and failed to feel a familiarity with Bayley, his wife and her Alzheimer's. If you are reading this book as a first-hand account with Alzheimer's, do not bother. The last 50 pages or so focus on the caregiver's difficulty with the disease but the rest depicts the monotonous every day life of a writer's married life.

Alzheimer's Takes A Hand in The Game
An elegant book which seems to drift along, sometimes idly, through the lives of Iris Murdoch and John Bayley. In fact, Bayley has structured his memoir with great care and is completely in control.

I originally picked the book up because of my interest in Alzheimer's. There is little on this through the first section of the book, labeled "Then," but Bayley's prose is nimble and hisobservations about his courtship with Iris and their long marriage are both fresh and tender. The title of the book is exact: this is an elegy for Iris Murdoch, and a lovely portrait of England's much-beloved writer.

Still, once Bayley enters the "Now" section my interest in the book doubles, as we hear how anxious Iris has grown, how uncommunicative and fearful. The last fifty pages of the book, presented as dated journal entries, are genius. Here are Iris and John, at ten every morning, watching Teletubbies on the BBC. "There are the rabbits!" Bayley says. The author, it's worth noting, is one of England's best-known literary critics--but one of his charms is how completely he yields to what has happened to Iris's mind, and to the demands of her care.

Not inevitably, of course, for there are times he grows frantic. "Iris's fear of other people if I'm not there is so piteous that I cannot bring myself to arrange for care-givers to `keep her company,' or to take her to the age therapy unit." As a result: "Wild wish to shout in her ear, `It's worse for me. It's much worse!'"

Day by day they grow physically closer, more tightly bound. Their old independence is gone, and Bayley must live with that. After forty years of taking their marriage for granted, he says, "marriage has decided it is tired of this, and is taking a hand in the game. Purposefully, persistently, involuntarily, our marriage is now getting somewhere. It is giving us no choice--and I am glad of that."

Bayley never pontificates. He has no helpful tricks, no suggestions on how to make things better. Instead, he gives us agile descriptions of how he and Iris swim together, lie in bed together, take trips together, go to parties and talk to strangers--as month by month it all grows more impossible. Like marriage, Alzheimer's has taken a hand in the game, which they will play out to the end.

John Bayley's Elegy for Iris

A very good read.

There is still, as should be, much curiosity about the Platonist philosopher and writer of many novels, Iris Murdoch. In this memoir, John Bailey relates tales of his relationship with Iris, his wife. He talks of their initial meetings, their marriage, their dwelling spaces, and those special little affinities and gestures that only exist in a long-term congenial marriage.He speaks of his own minor conceits and foibles in a very honest and telling way. And he describe's his wife's behavior as Altzheimer's sufferer.

I got the feeling (perhaps wrongly) that Bailey started this record up during her illness to deal with it, as one deals with other aspects of life through use of a diary or journal. As evidence, toward the end of the book, he does shift outright to journal entries. It appeared to me that he might have started the journaling, then swung back to the beginning to take a longer view of their relationship. These sections o fthe book are appropriately labeled "Then" and "Now."

The book is very descriptive of their life together. Even though they were different, their differences complemented each other. And they did have common interests--in nature, swimming, travel, their living spaces, their friends and acquaintances.

From Bailey's description, you get the feeling someone truly important is now missing from the world.

Nicely done.


... Read more

Product Description
Years ago, a group of friends bonded together to finance a political and philosophical book to be written by one of them. Now, amidst a midsummer ball at Oxford, a crisis occurs, and the vindictive ghosts of the past invade the present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Dostoevsky could give someone away
I wonder if this book was the best way to start becoming familiar with IM? As a comparison my favorites are Charles Taylor and Isaiah Berlin (at the moment) and they do not write novels. Wending my way around the frivolous soap opera like manage has me wondering where the philosophy is. Sure it must be reflected in the attentions and characterizations of the book and I must say I loved the constant failures of Duncan - poor Jenkins - this is great British humor. But for all of that it is he that ends up in France. Perhaps had Peter Sellers lived to play the role of Duncan in a film ... but that is an incomplete thought. Love must be the philosophical connection - I hope. But this is not Platonic. Perhaps another will be more interesting? If anything is unusual here it might be the plethora of interesting references. Who would have thought quoting Dostoevsky could give someone away? German and French come in handy occasionally.

Playing at God
Unlike the randomness that is usually at play with Iris Murdoch's novels, The Book and the Brotherhood sees a group of Oxfordians on their quest not only for a better world but to the betterment of each other.What is the Good and how mortals stray into playing at God find unexpected insight and horror to both characters and reader.

A very good place to start (on Murdoch)
Ah, it was a happy day in Beaumaris library in 1993 that I came upon this, my first Iris Murdoch novel.The characters in this book actually live in my head - and many of the set-piece scenes too - the opening Commem Ball with music by the appropriately-named band The Treason of the Clerks (puctuated by Gerard's disturbing interview with his old tutor Professor Levquist), Jenkin Riderhood's London flat with the windows open year-round, the squalor of Violet and Tamar Henshaw's quarters with the television permanently on (the mere presence of a televison is a sign of utter moral depravity in Iris's world!), Gerard's love for his parrot, Duncan Cambus's leonine mane of dark hair, the menacing ideological purity and commitment of David Crimond, half the cast of the novel ice-skating on Rose Curtland's pond, the tower in Ireland where two of the characters take refuge as lovers, and then the dark night that they deliberately drive their cars at each other along a country lane... I have written all of those from memory.If you seek a highbrow soap-opera about the liberal conscience in Englan just before the Wall came down, with some ice-skating thrown in, look no further.

a mix of intrigues
As is her practice, Murdoch starts the novel with a dialogue among the characters making the reader to find out the relevant context.Too many characters disturbed in one way or the other compel the reader to go back in the story to find the link. The novelist's description of the chacters'views on God, Good and Reality compels admiration because, the tendency of the human being in this technological era is also not to arrive at a sane conclusion immediately on morals or philosophy.The moral and philosophical concerns of Iris murdoch in this novel are too heavy to grasp initially. As the work progresses, the reader realises the need for some soul searching to understand the relationships.The characterisation of Crimond and the homo-sexual relations of characters like Gerard, Jenkin etc provide much food for thought.The novel set in midsummer ends with the spring time of happiness in the life of Gulliver and Lily.

A Chorus-line of Snails
Iris Murdoch's "The Book and the Brotherhood" is a marvelously droll novel of manners that has the audacity to explore the philosophical and moral issues that have effectively paralyzed a group of `60s-era Oxford graduates.The novel opens, appropriately enough, at Oxford, where, in the shadow of their former classmates and professors, the friends have gathered some 25 years later for a Ball.The narrative follows the movements of the group in a Mozartian roundelay, as each is, in turn, humiliated by revenants that appear to mock the potential they have, with one notable exception, so ingloriously squandered.The title refers to a pact the graduates once made to underwrite a philosophical treatise to be written by David Crimond, the most charismatic of their set; to the consternation of each, however, it now appears that the book might actually become a reality, and the prospect of its publication leads the group to an orgy of self-reproach and soul searching.The event of the Ball also inspires one wife to leave her husband and to take up with Crimond, a decision that leads to unexpected complications in all their lives.The novel is full of comic and tragic moments whenever the principals, whom Murdoch likens to a chorus-line of snails, attempt to emerge from their shells.A second generation of thirty-somethings is headed down the same path of dalliance as their elders, or so it seems, until, in the final pages, Murdoch offer an affirmation, of sorts, in the form of a pending marriage.Readers familiar with earlier novels by the late Dame will not be disappointed by this weighty offering from 1987, which can only enhance Murdoch's already-secure reputation as one of the great novelists of her generation. ... Read more

Product Description
Austin Gibson Grey, an American living in London, blames fate when he is drafted during the Vietnam War. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

I actually liked this book!
Believe it or not this is a pretty good book.

It is a bit dated since much of it relates to agonizing over Vietnam War draft dodging and there is just the beginning of open writing about gay relationships.

In general there is a lot of agonizing over trivialities among the characters in this book. I dislike books about people who make their lives difficult for no reason and then whine about it (see my review of JUDE THE OBSCURE). In AN ACCIDENTAL MAN many of the characters make their lives difficult for no apparent reason except that they are bored and overpriviledged--but thankfully they don't much whine about it.

There is not much plot although some odd, unexpected and violent events occur. There are obscure passages that reminded me of the worst of Henry James. And many passages could be skipped or skimmed. E.g. there are long series of letters back and forth and extended cocktail party conversation.

But I realized that the happily married couples lived their lives calmly in the background while their unattached siblings and children made themselves and others miserable. A great testament to ordinary middle class life (although I'm not sure that's what Iris intended).

Basically, I liked the book because in spite of the above I cared about the characters, got emotionally involved in their lives, and felt that I had been in touch with something interesting and important. The main difficulty that I had with Iris' writing is that she does not, at least in this novel, make any love relations comprehensible or believable. It's as though Iris does not know what love is or has never loved. Maybe however this an artistic aritfice and part of the "message" of the book. It just ain't true that "all you need is love." Mostly it's phony and unrewarding.

Subtle humour
Full of subtle humour, a most enjoyable read.As always, Murdoch's characters, even the minor players, are beautifully drawn.

Humour with a thick black edge
An Accidental man is a delicious read if you enjoy the tongue in cheek writing of Nancy Mitfod and Evelyn Waugh. It is essentially a story of an incestuous upper middle class English family and thier many friends and oneimposter, Ludwig, the scholarly American who by way of an accidental birthin Great Britain, is avoiding the draft to the Vietnam war by his parentsadopted contry. The dry sharpness of Ms Murdochs portrayal of thecharacters is as cool as a gin and tonic but Ludwig, who engages himself toGracie, the much indulged daugter, soon finds his real ideals in questionand the apparent tight family bonds are really gossamer thin andsuperficial. Other characters, Matthew, Mavis, Austin and Dorina play alarge part in the story, indeed, Austin, the accidental Man of the titlecarries with him a series of accidents involving the entrapement and deathof two wives, the death of an innocent child and the maiming of a bumblingblackmailer. Matthew sets himself up as the saviour of the accidentalbrother but there is no salvation for Austin nor any of the gang as thiercomfotable world of simple social expectations leads them into a secondgeneration, while Ludwig escapes their prison only to land in a real oneback home in America. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humourwith a black edge. It is fairly long and the multitude of characterssometimes makes it a bit confusing but it well worth settling in to and asit is the first of Ms Murdochs books I have read, I will look forward tothe next...and the next! ... Read more

Product Description
In the English town of Ennistone hot springs bubble up from deep beneath the earth. In these healing waters the townspeople seek health and regeneration, rightousness and ritual cleansing. To this town steeped in ancient lore and subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. He exerts an almost magical influence over a host of Ennistonians, and especially over George McCaffrey, the host of Ennistonians, and especially over George McCaffrey, the Philosophers old pupil, a demonic man desperate for redemption. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Incredibly Boring
If you want to make your life seem much longer, read this book. Murdoch may be a great writer but it's not evident in this book. Remember those writing classes where the prof told you to "show, not tell"? Murdoch must have decided to see if she could write a book using the completely opposite method. There is no reader interaction required here at all - you are supposed to be an open, empty vessel into which Murdoch pours an unending analysis of each character and each action. Nothing at all for your brain to do. This book is great for insomnia.

All the characters in the book are, quite simply, crazy. Not one of them is the least bit believable. They are completely and utterly self centered and about as interesting as a laundry list. If you are interested in philosophy, this book will show you just how irrelevant and silly it can be. Don't say I didn't warn you.

A complete shock
The philosopher's Pupil was the first Murdoch novel I read. It will always stand for me as her best. What a shock! It starts with the best couple argument I've ever read (insight, humor, cruelity, style) and finishes with a perfect ending. You will find here Murdoch at her best: close and opressive ambients sudenly moved by a new and powerful presence, water all over the place, sex as salvation, philophical arguments, high minded personalities, women earth and men demons, victims, wolfes, all her imaginary to create a perfect moral tale about love, family and getting old. It is always a pleasure to read Iris Murdoch, but The philosopher's pupil, for me, outstands her other novels. A jewel between good jobs.

Perhaps Murdoch's Most Underrated Novel
This is a brilliant, consuming, sweeping panorama or a work--that surprisingly seems yet to get its full due, whereas many of Murdoch's earlier, shorter (and lesser) novels enjoy rave reviews, large sales, "classic" status, and theatrical adaptations.

Yet it's a masterpiece on a multiplicity of levels, and as Mahler once said of *his* more "difficult" work, "[Its] time will yet come."

I wouldn't recommend this to someone who has naver read Murdoch--but, if you've read and enjoyed *The Black Prince* or *The Sea, The Sea*, for instance, make this your next selection.

from a senior in guelph, ontario
This is the first time I read a work from Iris Murdoch. Years ago I read one of her earlier books and was not impressed, but after years of living and reading I decided to try her again. Well - I'm hooked.
Murdoch describes her characters in a most detailed way with their human foibles, and theirsmall town gossip The scenes at the sea side are marvellous. This writer knows how to evoke atmosphere, how to create believable characters who are flawed and still so (humanly) endearing.
Her style is simple and without pretense - she introduces all the characters before she even starts her story. I delighted in the narrator `N' who butts in every once in a while and who is just as small-town minded and slightly smug) as his characters. When Murdoch ends the book she ties up the many loose ends and gives credit where credit is due, you discover that most of the characters know `N', which, in a way, makes sense as he/she is, after all,their creator.
My complaint is that the book is too long. Like the previous reviewer I feel it should have been shortened. I simply began to skip the philosophical passages in the last part of the book, but I want to come back to them at a later date, as I enjoyed these passages the most.
[Sorry, I'm not a reviewer at all - simply can offermy feelings about this book.]

Hot springs eternal
Dame Murdoch convincingly creates a rich world within the fictionalEnglish spa village of Ennistone.The sweep of characters and allusions, historical, literary and philosophical, are impressive.In typical Murdochfashion, the action revolves around an anti-social genius, in this case thephilosopher, Rozanov.His famed intellect is more than offset but hispetty cruelty and utter alienation from human society.His wretchedex-pupil, George, is his drunken disciple, repeatedly spurned by the"great man." The various sub-plots, involving Quakers, anhomo-sexual Anglican priest, half-Gypsy maid-servants, a swimming lap-dog,and Rozanov's absurdly innocent and estranged grand-daughter, allillustrate various human foibles.All of the mere mortals want differentthings from the philosopher, but he is an empty man.All brain, no heart,except for his incestuous lust for his grand-daughter.I greatly preferred" A Fairly Honourable Defeat," and "The Sea, the Sea,"as examples of the author weaving her tapestry of human frailty,self-deception, and morality. And at 700 pages, I wonder if a bit ofjudicious editing would not have kept things more interesting.Astaggering and erudite achievement, nonetheless.Murdoch attempts more ina single paragraph than many authors achieve in a lifetime. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Memoir: "My Years with the Bayleys"
As another reviewer pointed out, the book is just as much about John Bayley as about Iris Murdoch. It also includes some of Wilson's memories that really only have to do with himself (or people he knew that are just too interesting to leave out, like Hugh Grant, or J. B. Priestley).

It is misleading to refer to this as a refutation of Bayley's books and the movie. Opening & closing chapters do slam Bayley and try to "set the record straight" a bit. However, in the rest of the book, Bayley, just as much as Iris, is clearly admired by the author, whose main desire is that people know Iris Murdoch as novelist & thinker, not Alzheimers poster child.

The bulk of the book describes the author's relationship with Bayley & Iris, recounting various stories about them and trying to put these into a context showing how real people and situations in her life may have shown up in her books.

Wilson probably wrote the adoring content as Iris' official biographer; although he never wrote the biography he was certainly taking notes and thinking about it for years. I'm guessing that with the new interest in her from Bayley's books and the movie, Wilson was moved to sandwich his basically already-written memoir-ish chapters in between the two newer, more vituperative ones.

Very interesting regarding philosophy, literature, religion, love & marriage, Oxford, English culture & literati, etc.

Exceptional and unsettling
This is an exceptional book, although one whose audience, at least here in the States, probably is rather limited, consisting primarily of fans of Iris Murdoch's novels, students of literary biography, and a few cultural groupies who will relish gossipy tidbits about various notables of the British intellectual elite circa 1960-1990.

By no means is this a conventional literary biography.It is more informal, along the lines of what the title indicates -- Iris Murdoch as the author knew her, which was for the last thirty years of her life, from 1969 to 1999.There is, however, a lengthy chapter covering the standard biographical facts of Murdoch's life from before the author (A.N. Wilson) first became acquainted with her and her husband (John Bayley) while a student at Oxford.

All in all, the book is quite successful at bringing Iris Murdoch to life (including her sexual promiscuity and other peccadilloes and her sometimes rude and squalid behavior as she sank into the dementia of Alzheimer's) and in assessing her status and work as a novelist.As to the latter, Wilson is an unabashed admirer, calling some of her novels (or perhaps, to be more precise, some parts of most of her novels) the best writing to come out of England in his lifetime.Her great theme, he states, is "the chaos of the human heart in its quest for sacred and profane love."Her novels "are a coruscating analysis of the human capacity to turn love into power-games; the most uncompromising scrutiny of what takes place in the tyrant's cage which masquerades as a happy marriage."

That last sentence also comprehends Murdoch's own marriage, to John Bayley, a marriage that is perhaps even more starkly and memorably portrayed in this book than is Iris Murdoch the writer.("The Bayleys As I Knew Them" would have been a more apt, if less commercial, title for the book.)And it is primarily the stark portrayal of that marriage that makes the book unsettling, as well as exceptional.At times, IRIS MURDOCH AS I KNEW HER seems to go beyond the bounds of decency in exposing to public scrutiny such dark, dank, and dirty -- and quintessentially private -- aspects of her and of her marriage.The transgressor, however, is not so much the author of this book, A.N. Wilson, as Murdoch's husband, John Bayley, who profited off her death and dementia with two earlier books (one of which served as the basis for the film "Iris) about Murdoch in her sorry decrepitude.Indeed, Wilson, with considerable justification, can hold out his book as a corrective to the picture of Iris Murdoch given us by her husband.Still, the feeling persists that no biographical subject other than the true monsters of the world (the Hitlers, Stalins, and Pol Pots) deserves to be exposed as pitilessly as has Iris Murdoch, even if the writer looks on his subject with as much obvious respect and affection as Wilson does Murdoch.

Wilson sprinkles the book with worthwhile comments about various and sundry matters, such as the art of biography, the psychology and creativity of a novelist, religion, politics, philosophy (especially existentialism), and noteworthy literary figures little-known on this side of the Atlantic (for example, Elizabeth Bowen, Barbara Pym, John Cowper Powys, and J.I.M. Stewart).There also is some name-dropping -- Wilson is not quite as modest and unassuming as he probably likes to think of himself - and many anecdotes and much gossip about British literary luminaries of the latter half of the 20th Century.

As I said at the outset, the audience for IRIS MURDOCH AS I KNEW HER probably is rather small, but for that audience it can be highly recommended.

useful antidote to John Bayley's "Iris"
Wilson rightly holds that Bayley's Iris and the movie made from it belittle Iris Murdoch by reducing her to a few schoolgirl trysts and a frumpy, doddering, confused old woman.To Iris, her novels and her philosophy were who she was.There is almost none of this in Bayley's book.Wilson felt that Bayley had opened "a Pandora's box of which he quite clearly lost control.The resentment, envy, poisonously strong misogyny and outright hatred of his wife which seemed to me to come from the books, ..., were things of which he probably had only a hazy consciousness." (p. 9)Wilson was not the only one among Iris's friends to have this reaction.

Wilson was acquainted with Iris and John for the last 30 years of her life, from 1969 to 1999.His biography includes a long chapter giving you the facts of Iris's life.The rest of the book gives you Iris the person.It makes lively and informal reading.Wilson also gives you glimpses of some of the important people Iris knew such as Elizabeth Bowen.

The book also corrects a number of things.Iris with tears in her eyes told Wilson she would like to have had children.Bayley hated children but claimed (with the same sweet smile as always) that they wanted them but that Iris was past child-bearing.Since Iris was only 36, this was a lie."Like a spoilt child, JOB reacts petulantly to the presence of other, real children invading his space or claiming the attention of his Protectress." (p. 15).

John Bayley became more and more of a "sweet poison" person as the years went on and, while playing the faithful dog, got gradually more of the upper hand.He resented Iris's earlier sleeping with other men, even though he claimed to her that he accepted this and accepted her as she was.As she grew old and her meetings with men were merely for philosophical discussions, Bayley's jealousy grew more open and demanding; and any such meetings he found out about, he put a stop to (p. 57).Bayley was also jealous of the fact that Iris was brighter than he was and infinitely more famous."Why this pair, [although wealthy], did not employ a cleaner, or a nurse, and why John Bayley needed to be King of this particular castle ... was a mystery." (p. 6)

Iris had a strong belief in education as the way to eliminate inequality.She was therefore opposed to the new education system in Britain of "mixed-abilities classes.""they wouldn't choose a mixed-ability football team," she said.(p. 36).

Toward the end, when Iris was totally out of it from Altzheimer's, Bayley went around with a woman friend named "Audi" in Iris's presence.He also exploited her illness and death in two "memoirs" and in a novel.He inherited the over 2 million pounds of wealth which had accrued to Iris through her books.
... Read more

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religious book
A very religious novel. It deals on redemption threefoldly defined as healing of memory, detachment and the will to love. A fine piece of narrative for a philosophical discourse on the need for salvation and the complicated dynamic that weaves the tapestry redemption as a human exigency. ... Read more

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Set in London and in the South of France, this brilliantly structured novel centers on two women: Gertrude Openshaw, bereft from the recent death of her husband, yet awakening to passion; and Anne Cavidge, who has returned in doubt from many years in a nunnery, only to encounter her personal Christ. A fascinating array of men and women hover in urgent orbit around them: the "Count," a lonely Pole obsessively reliving his &eacutemigré father's patriotic anguish; Tim Reede, a seedy yet appealing artist, and Daisy, his mistress; the manipulative Mrs. Mount; and many other magically drawn characters moving between desire and obligation, guilt and joy. This edition of Nuns and Soldiers includes a new introduction by renowned religious historian Karen Armstrong. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Prefer the video of the same name, but ...
An interesting take on the old theme of nuns/soldiers and vicars/tarts, this one.Most of you will know the story, but I shan't spoil it for those who have not yet read it.I am surprised that that girl from Titanic could write something as clever as this.

Reading pleasure
Whenever I read an Iris Murdoch novel, I am reminded how much I enjoy and appreciate her work. Her books are always a pleasure to read, and a pleasure that I would be sincerely sorry to miss.

At the moment of the death of her husband, Gertrude is reunited with her best friend from University-- Anne. Anne and Gertrude had been separated when Anne had joined the nunnery, and it is this occasion of great loss for both of them (Anne has lost the solace of the nunnery) that brings them together. Nuns and Soldiers questions both the notion of great love and the morality of the expression of love.

My book club was not overly fond of Nuns and Soldiers because they found the character of Gertrude so utterly unsympathetic. I must admit that she is truly atypical for Murdoch-- her feminine passivity and self-centeredness are not normal characteristics for Murdoch characters. However, her traits make her a good fit for the novel, even if she would make a grating person to know in real life.

Like most Murdoch novels, this is one that I would recommend.

Lengthy and irritating
This is one of three Iris Murdoch books I have read, as a good friend of mine is a big fan. I have yet to see why. I found Nuns and Soldiers silly and overwrought, an extended but inexplicable love story filled withimprobable and self conscious conversations. Do people experiencing a coupde foudre really sit around and dissect their feelings? I don't find thephilosophical or moral underpinnings of the story to be compelling, either.Social requirements versus individual desire, I guess.

Memorable characters, masterful plotting
"Nuns and Soldiers" was the first Iris Murdoch novel I read.I've since read many others, but it remains one of the most memorable, from the very first scene when an important character is on his deathbed.(Avisitor considers whether to mention to the dying man that it's raining,but then reflects on how irrelevant that would be . . . "There wouldbe no more weather for Gerald.") In addition to the side trips intophilosphy that are typical in Murdoch's novels, you have memorablecharacters for whom she's created detailed and interesting pasts -- thisreally draws you into their lives as they veer from one life-changingcrisis to the next.Murdoch's plotting is amazing, as well: masterfullydone.She'd be worthy of a college course in writing, for sure.I"held back" a star because the ending was a bit "happilyever after" for my taste, but it's an excellent book. ... Read more

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Sartre's powerful political passions were united to a memorable literary gift, placing him foremost among the novelists, as well as the philosophers, of our time. This study analyses and evaluates the different strands of Sartre's rich and complex work. Combining the objectivity of the scholar with a profound interest in contemporary problems, Iris Murdoch discusses the tradition of philosophical, political and aesthetic thought that gives historical authenticity to Satre's achievement, while showing the ambiguities and dangers inherent in his position. SATRE begins with a critical analysis of Satre's novels and his ideas of freedom, consciousness and language, and ends with an appraisal of la literature engagee. ... Read more

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Our acts teach us our intentions
In post-war France,philosophy became a branch of literary studies,headed by Sartre,in his wake de Beauvoir and Camus,not forgetting Marcel,another of the group being the academic philosopher,Mearleu-Ponty. Iris Murdoch herself combined the two roles of philosopher and novelist, one of abstract rigor,one of sensuous particularity. Why Plato kept poets out of his Republic.Murdoch loves language,and alludes to its uses in other literary figures like Joyce,Proust,Eliot,Conrad,Tolstoy and Rimbaud.She favours continental philosophy over analytical schools.

As the other reviewer,"A Reader"says,don't go to this for summaries of the philosophy, L'Etre et Le Neant and the densely philosophical novel,La Nausée.The main subject is the individual consciousness,nausea,viscocity,bad faith,phenomenology,freedom.Man is condemned to misunderstand himself.In the novel,Roquentin fails to grasp what his life means.Consciousness as an emptiness,tense mobility,reflective power,existence bursting through its categories,the radiance of art, is all Roquentin can aspire to.The greatest philosophy set down in novel form?

This book is enchanting,but worries me.You feel Murdoch disdains Anglo-Saxon philosophy,which has left its lucidity in her prose style,and she has sought another escape into the labrynth of existentialism,with its greater picture of the sovereignty of the individual consciousness,mind as the responsible creator of sense.Man is a being,deprived of general truths,tormented by an absolute aspiration."The spirit seems to have deserted our social fabric,to hang in the air,blowing on the ideological gales."The uniqeness of the human person vs.ideology and abstraction.You get the picture.But isn't she lured by the philosophy set in images?Sartre is persuasive.

She feels Sartre's impatience with the stuff of life,reducing all mysteries to problems,treating issues ratherthan people,makes his philosophy unique,his novels flawed.She herself analyses Les Chemins de la Liberte with some moral regard,discovering Sartre finds it hard to maintain our interest and sense of reality in his characters due to the drying and emptying effect of his perpetual analysis as a philosopher.But read the originals too.Needless to say some English philosophers thought she'd betrayed the cause.Why didn't she write about Gabriel Marcel?This
philosophy fed into her great gifts as a novelist and her loss of belief in God.
... Read more

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In a psychological drama, a mysterious and charismatic English butler derails the marriage of his master, a young aristocrat, and his fiance+a7e, sending them both off on strange and dark paths. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

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only for Murdoch fans, if them!
This was the first book by Murdoch I'd read (listened to) - a big mistake. It is AWFUL. Without her name it would never have been published. Though trying to be set in the time of writing (she mentions the Holocaust) it is really 1910. None of the characters have jobs or even think of working, spend half the book telephoning each other or staying home to get a call (answering machines don't seem to exist) and the other half driving back and forth from their country houses to their London houses. (They make do without servants in their London houses.)

There is no plot, just one thread of a story, and the point of focus jumps from one character to another for no reason. Almost at the end two characters who haven't opened their mouths before suddenly declare love
and, naturally, propose immediate marriage (in 1995?) to two other peripheral characters - as if this novel had just divided into two daughter novels.

All the characters who are at all developed are unlikable, the others unbelievable. Jackson seems to be treated as a Symbol but of what I couldn't make out, since he is hardly present for most of the book and does almost nothing.

The total impression is of a kaleidoscope where the glass bits are just pieces of broken bottles.

The Reader's Dilemma
My dilemma was whether to finish this annoying book or not. My choice was to finish it, hoping it would be redeemed by the clarification of Jackson's Dilemma at last. It was not.

I found the dialogue repetitive, overly sentimental, hard to follow (like very bad stream of consciousness)and the characters, other than Owen and Jackson, uninteresting people with too little to do and too much time to think about it.

There was some plot resemblence to A Midsummer Night's Dream, or A Winter's Tale, but in this book at least, Iris Murdoch is no Shakespeare.

Unfortunately for me, this was my first Iris Murdoch. It will be awhile before I pick up another.

Avoid a dilemma: read other Murdoch novels before Jackson's
To be fair to Iris Murdoch, I suggest that a first-time Murdoch reader avoid choosing Jackson's Dilemma for a first exposure to Murdoch.Not knowing that this was her last novel I began my Murdoch adventure at a disadvantage.Although I found the novel interesting it was definitely unsatisfying because her concept of Jackson was not well enough developed.In light of recent research regarding the effect of Alzheimers Disease on her writing, I'll certainly read some of her earlier novels.

The Truth
The truth is that this book is, while not bad, surely not as good as Murdoch can be. Of course, she was a victim of Alzheimer's, and this was was her last book. But it is important to warn readers to do a deep reading of the literary criticism given to the book. Critics, obviously aware of Murdoch's illness, wanted to be kind - she is a powerhouse of a genius after all. But the book, while engaging, takes a long time to become truly absorbing, and even then, the story's inconsistencies remain and are impossible to ignore. Nonetheless, Jackson's Dilemma is a good read, and I do genuinely appreciate it.

The Awful End to a Great Career
Never read Murdoch before, and unfortunately this awful book doesn't seem like the place to have started either. After finishing it, I discovered she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's right after completing the manuscript-which goes a long way toward explaining how such an acclaimed author could produce such a monumentally uninteresting book. Another somewhat telling thing I discovered is that the reviewers of this book seem fairly evenly split between describing it as a comedy and describing it as a mystery, of which it is neither.

The rough gist of the book is that there is a circle of upper-class Brits who have become friends over the years, plus an enigmatic butler/manservant Jackson. One of the circle is to wed another, when complications arise, sending the whole group into a tizzy. Secret longings are revealed, secret pain and guilt expounded on, endless pontificating and empty philosophizing ensure. I suppose it's vaguely reminiscent of Austen, with various upper-class, and poor hanger-on's all repressing themselves until, in an orgy of Shakespearean homage, everyone gets duly paired off with the behind the scenes assistance of Jackson (can you say "Puck"?).

It sounds vaguely enjoyable, but it isn't. First of all, it's not funny in the slightest. Ever. Secondly, as a satire of the upper class it's halfhearted. Yes, they're all self-absorbed idiots in one way or another, requiring the practical blue-collar help of Jackson to put anything right. But it's a very gentle and loving satire, with no teeth whatsoever, and therefore fails to leave an impression. Thirdly, it's not suspenseful in the slightest. For there to be suspense, there must first exist characters that one cares about, and there are none here. There are some things to be curious about (what's Jackson's story), but nothing that is engaging on anything but the most superficial level. Finally, as writing, it's pretty bad. Given the tremendously stilted dialogue, and bizarre repetitions in some passages, one has to assume that Murdoch was beginning to lose the plot already and that no editor dared point out some of the obvious weaknesses.

Best to skip this and concentrate on her earlier work. ... Read more

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Iris Murdoch's 24th novel, a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, explores the meaning of life in a story of love and betrayal, faith and doubt. "Murdoch works with an intellectual daring most writers only dream of."--The Philadelphia Inquirer. ... Read more

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Muddled Message
Well, first, let me say that Iris Murdoch is a good writer, that she captures what seemms to me the tenour of the socialinteractions in comtemporary England among the Middle classes extremely well, rather crabbed and incestuous (not literally), and that The Tempest influence works for the most past.

BUT...this book, taken as a whole, seems to me a work of theodicy (explaining God's ways to man) which simply doesn't sit well with a work of art-In short, it's tendentious-The "Message," in the end, seems to be:"God works in inscrutable and mysterious ways and it's best not to ponder overmuch these mysterious ways (such as the Holocaust) or it will KILL you."
This is a bit of an oversimplification, but will have to do for this review.

On the other hand, Murdoch does have a deft rather than heavy hand in portraying human relations.So, I suppose one must take the well-written with the tendentious.

For those looking for a more brilliant modern novel heavily influenced by The Tempest, may I humbly recommmend The Magus by John Fowles whose wriring is brilliant, and the "message" of which will leave you pondering long after you put the book down.

Philosophy and Love
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I like this book at least as well as The Bell and the Sandcastle, and very possibly more.

One of the characters in this book asks where ordinary morality is, when what iscalled for in the world is the courage of a saint. Once again, Murdochvisits the question of the Good and how it applies to human life. This timethe question centers around Marcus, who anchors the novel as a characterfrom myth-- sometimes a saint, sometimes Prospero, sometimes a lunatic.Each of the other characters in the book have to find their way (througheccentric marriages, chaste romances, resurrections, and mysticism) in aworld where all the familiar rules no longer apply. All the solutions(where there are solutions) are complicated and costly.

As usual, thewriting is crisp and incisive, the characters well-formed and verycomplete. One of the great Murdoch novels.

I'm just starting on Murdoch
I am just starting on Murdoch.Having read the Green Knight previously I found this book a dissapointment.Yet I couldn't, or wouldn't let myself put it down.In The Green Knight, Murdoch created a wonderful mixture of spiritual depths and the basic gossipy human interaction that makes a novelfantastic.Also, an incredible authorial and personal sense of thecommunity that friends and (sometimes) family develop.This one seemed tobe striving for the same and yet failed as I could see.I was continuallyjudging the characters, weighing them mentally.This in itself is not aproblem, but when they consisently come up lacking or increasinglyconfusing, and without what I sensed as an overriding authorial vision ofwho they truly are, it becomes difficult to maintain faith in a novel andthe potential larger message.I found the narrator's fascination with themain character unjustified; indeed, his interpretations of all thecharacters were difficult.And again, such limited authorial intrustion toprovide me with a reliable roadmap.Nevertheless, I am addicted to thiswriter and am now on the one Iris Murdoch a month track.

A brilliant, incisive novel
Although this is ostensibly a novel about a bizarre character's interaction with the world around him, what I took from it is a probing, insightful look by Murdoch at the question of what would it be like ifJesus appeared in present times....Her prose is dense and the book can bedifficult at times, but the payoff is well worth the effort. ... Read more

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Carel Fisher is a priest who is experiencing doubt and beginning to feel hate for God. The novel explores the forces of good and evil, and studies a religious man transferring his faith from one force to the other. This Collected Edition is published to honour Iris Murdoch's 70th birthday. ... Read more

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One of Murdoch's best--and darkest
THE TIME OF THE ANGELS is not one of Murdoch's best-known novels, but it is one of her best and most disturbing. Concentrated largely in a London rectory for a church bombed to smithereens during the last war, the novel is concerend, appropriately enough, with the ways in which people can act in the absence of God. The action of the novel--and much of the character's concerns--revolve upon the strange new rector of the church, Carel, who refuses to see anyone other than his daughter, his ward, and his servants in his new station, and who never leaves the house: the novel creates a wonderfully claustrophic atmosphere within the rectory that seems to anticipate that in the toymaker's house in Angela Carter's subsequent little masterpiece THE MAGIC TOYSHOP. (The hazy wintertime in the London streets of Murdoch's novel also act beautifully to counteract the overheated atmosphere inside the rectory.) Although the novel does not end up with as high a body count as some of Murdoch's other works (such as the Jacobean Gothic THE UNICORN), its concluding events are incredibly bleak--though lightened by some final touches of Murdochian humor.

As wierd a novel as you will read this year
This is certainly a wierd story. A dominating, rude, destructive Anglican Priest has become an atheist preaching wild sermons to his disturbed and dissappearing parrishoners. Yet his dominance and control keep a solor system of lesser weakling personalities tied to him. Carel's behavior throughout the book is destructive yet his apologist daughter, Muriel, keeps making excuses for him, even when she finds that her invalid cousin, Elizabeth, is actually her father's illegitimate daughter with his sister-in-law and he is having sex with this young sickly woman that he knows is his daughter.

The parrish and parsonage are full of hidden passages and peep holes so that everyone can spy on Carel's misdeeds.

His brother Marcus continues to make contact with Carel, continually is rebuffed, and then thinks he is enlightened by this process by the wise older brother, Carel, who actually could care less whether his younger brother lives or dies.

Interestingly, there is a beautiful young amoral Russian boy, Leo, living in the parsonage with his father,who is just as amoral and is also forgiven because of his youth and beauty. I found it interesting that Murdoch would have the read be repulsed by the older Carel yet forgive the younger Leo, when they are both birds of a feather.

What an odd book! ... Read more

Product Description
In this innovative and wide-ranging book, Byatt and the psychoanalyst Ignes Sodre bring their different sensibilities to bear on six novels they have read and loved: Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Bronte's Villette, George Elliot's Daniel Deronda, Willa Cather's The Professor's House, Iris Murdoch's An Unofficial Rose, and Toni Morrison's Beloved. The results are nothing less than an education in the ways literature grips its readers and, at times, transforms their lives. Imagining Characters is indispensable, a work of criticism that returns us to the books it discusses with renewed respect and wonder. ... Read more

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Eavesdropping on Great Conversations
The happiest moments of a liberal arts education usually take place late in the evening in a dormitory lounge or in a local bistro over several cups of coffee.They're conversations, often between two similarly minded people, that explore a favorite subject.Browsing through Imagining Characters is like lingering in a seat at the next table.

The works selected are an English major's hit list of mainly nineteenth century women's novels.Byatt and Sodre bring their experience as a fiction writer and a clinical psychologist, respectively, to their understandings and develop complementary insights rather than rigorous debates.

This isn't everyone's cup of java.The reader who enjoys this volume probably relishes at least half of the novels discussed, smiles at being called a feminist, and prefers discussion to formal criticism. ... Read more

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Exploring biblical and medieval themes in a contemporary London setting, the story of two brothers, a murder gone awry, and the outrageous demands of a stranger is filled with symbolism, humor, and suspense. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

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A bit of a let-down
The Green Knight is a decent story, but that's about the most generous compliment I can give it.The beginning seems scattered as the reader is introduced to many characters, one after the other, in a disjointed sort of way.There are moments when the story becomes really interesting, and it was at these moments that I was dying to keep reading in order to find out the big mystery, but alas, there is no big mystery.

Murdoch crafted some interesting and peculiar characters that at first, I really wanted to get to know.However, it wasn't long before I realized that I didn't actually CARE about any of them.They're not particularly likeable--some come across as cold, others are whiney, and the rest are vain and empty-headed.There really wasn't one that I felt was the "main" character, and there wasn't one that I was rooting for.I was very disappointed with Peter's involvement in the story because I really wanted something great to happen with him.It seemed there was a lot of build-up and no result.

One thing that Murdoch did in this novel (and I haven't read her others so I am not sure if this is typical of her) is basically tell the reader what happens instead of let the story unfold in a natural way.At the end, it feels as though she suddenly remembered that she had wanted to include something she'd forgotten, so she wrote it in quickly, and I found this very jolting and dissatisfying.Some of the things that happened in the end made little sense to me as there had been no prior mention of them.

I liked the book for its rich atmosphere and the personality quirks of the characters.There were times while reading the book that I wished I could be in the aviary with Aleph, Sefton, and Moy, and I was very interested in Peter when his story became a focal point.But again, I didn't find any of the characters particularly compelling.

The book isn't a complete waste of time, but it's not a masterpiece.

an engrossing world
What attracts me to a book is being able to relate to its characters, and finding the setting engaging.The Green Knight met both of these criteria easily, which is what kept me interested for about the first half of the book, which wasn't a page-turner by any means.But that changed once my investment in the characters became palpable as they faced some unusual challenges in the second half, when various issues begin to come to a head.The novel is focused around a group of about ten people whose lives connect in common ways, and as the book progresses, the connections become odder.All the characters are so well-developed that I felt I could relate to each of them, and fell in love with all of them.Even though I finished the book about six months ago, I still regularly think about the people in it, and miss them.

"The Green Nightmare"
This book ranks right up there with my Top Ten All Time Terrible books!I love good writing technique especially coupled with a good story and memorable characters.This book had none of the above.The language was wordy, wandering, and sometimes just plain inane.The story was totally idiotic.The religious, mythological and political references were so obscure and/or muddled they just didn't make any sense or impact.Combine that with the fact that once a symbolic point was started it just died out as in the swan attack.What was the point of bringing it up at all if not to make some juicy story out of it?The characters were equally inane and idiotic.There wasn't one person in this book I even gave a fig about!OK, I DID like the dog, the only one with any sense at all! The names of these people were even annoying! Talk about being lost in a London fog.I had a terrible time getting through this book and only did so because a good friend wanted someone to discuss this book with.That hasn't happened yet.Maybe our discussion will spark some "like".There surely isn't any "like" at this point in time.I consider it just plain weird.

boring
I was excited to read this book for a number of reasons. Murdoch's reputation as a wonderful writer and the brief but interesting synopsis among them. This book was definitely among the worst I have read in a long time. I kept waiting for it to get better, no such luck. It seemed as if Murdoch tried to go to great lengths to develop her characters, to give them depth, but most felt (with maybe the exception of Peter) so self absorbed and shallow that you couldn't really "feel" for them. Save yourself the disappointment.

Fascinating late Murdoch
Iris Murdoch's compelling next-to-last novel does show some evidence of the Alzheimer's disease that would soon destroy her mental faculties (and would also, if what I've read is right, become considerably more evident in her final novel, "Jackson's Dilemma").

The opening pages are rather strange; she seems to have given up on introducing the characters one or two at a time. It's rather overwhelming to have so many character names and relationships thrown at you so quickly. But stick with it, even if you have to read those first few pages a couple of times. If you do, you will soon find yourself completely caught up in this fascinating and continually surprising story. Here and there are some clumsily phrased and bizarrely punctuated sentences, and there's even a rather odd inconsistency (Murdoch tells us that one character has brown eyes on one page and then he has blue eyes eyes a bit later). Perhaps Murdoch sensed that the end of her career was at hand--after all, she was in her 70s when she wrote this. I can't help but feel that Murdoch's urgent need to tell this story while she still could led her to dispense with polishing it. Despite the sloppiness that is a bit bothersome occasionally, Murdoch's ability to spin a fascinating tale is as strong as ever, perhaps even stronger, and this book very quickly becomes compulsively readable.

Overall, the story couldn't be more typical of Murdoch: A group of well-educated Londoners, most of whom are searching for love or redemption or both, suddenly have to deal with a powerful and charismatic stranger who turns their world upside down. I could go into more detail, but I don't want to spoil it for you. All I will say is that Murdoch's vision seems, in the end, a bit less dark than usual. Redemption really seems possible this time.

This might not be the place to start if you've never read Murdoch before. Better choices might include "A Fairly Honourable Defeat," "The Black Prince," "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine," or "The Book and the Brotherhood." But if you're a Murdoch fan who hasn't read this one yet, it's a must-read. ... Read more

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There is more to it than that. There always is with roses.
Fanny Perronet was dead. The opening line of "An Unofficial Rose" echoes that of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", and the novel itself deals with of events set in motion by Fanny's death. Her widower, Hugh, a retired civil servant, considers returning to Emma, his former mistress with whom he had an affair more than twenty years earlier. Hugh and Fanny's son Randall considers leaving his wife, Ann, for his own mistress, Lindsay, who is Emma's close friend and companion. Ann also has an admirer in the shape of Felix Meecham, an Army officer who has for many years been platonically in love with her. Felix's older sister Mildred, the unhappily married wife of Hugh's former colleague and neighbour Humphrey Finch, is in love with Hugh. Although the novel is relatively short, the plot is a complex one- too complex to be summarised here- but it revolves around Hugh's decision whether or not to sell a valuable painting.

The title, derived from Rupert Brooke's poem "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester", refers on a literal level to the fact that Randall and Ann run a successful rose-growing business. There is, however, more to it than that. There always is with roses in English literature. A daffodil or a chrysanthemum, a red campion or a viper's bugloss, can be just a flower; a rose has to have a symbolic meaning. It can be a symbol of love, of truth, of beauty, of transience, of Englishness. By an "unofficial" rose Brooke meant a wild rose of the hedgerows which he contrasts with the "official" cultivated flowers of the Berlin garden in which he is sitting, demonstrating his preference for the natural over the artificial.

In the context of Murdoch's novel, Brooke's unofficial rose becomes a complex symbol. All the five elements mentioned above play a part in the book. All the major characters, who are linked by an intricate network of inter-relationships, are in search of love, and some of them are in search of truth and beauty as well. Hugh, for example, is an art connoisseur, and Randall's one obsession, apart from his love for Lindsay, has been his quest to breed the perfect rose. The element of transience is also emphasised; several of the characters (Hugh, Emma, Mildred) are elderly, and are confronted with what may be their last chance of achieving love and happiness.

The unofficial/official distinction perhaps mirrors the division between those characters who act instinctively or spontaneously and those who are more reflective or calculating. Ann, instinctively loyal to her husband despite his infidelity and the younger generation, in the shape of Hugh's teenaged grandchildren Penn and Miranda, fall into the first category. Into the second can be placed characters such as Hugh, who carefully works through all the possible implications of the sale of the painting, and the mercenary Lindsay, who refuses to commit herself to Randall until his financial position has been secured through that sale.

The element of Englishness is not emphasised as strongly in the novel than it is in Brooke's poem, one of the finest evocations of homesickness in English literature. Nevertheless, this is, despite the fact that the author was born in Ireland, in many ways a very English novel, not only in its setting (the Kent countryside on the edge of Romney Marsh) but also in its reserve and delicacy; although it is concerned with strong emotions, these are for the most part expressed quietly, with few violent or dramatic events.

Besides that of the rose, another important image in the book is that of the soldier; Murdoch's choice of Felix's profession was not an accident. Felix states that one should "take life as a job. Just like the Army. Go where it sends one and take whatever comes next". Anthony Nuttall points out in his introduction that this metaphor is borrowed from Plato's "Phaedo", which describes the stoical way in which Socrates met death. In the novel this dutiful stoicism is exemplified not only by Felix, who refuses to declare his love for Ann until after her husband has abandoned her, but also by Ann herself, who accepts her husband's infidelity uncomplainingly. We also see something of this attitude in Emma, who is herself facing death as she is terminally ill.

The novel has been criticised as dealing with too narrow a social spectrum; all the major characters are drawn from the wealthy upper middle classes. (Indeed, with their servants and Tintorettos, they would in some countries be regarded as upper class, but the British have always been reluctant to use this term of anyone not possessed of an aristocratic title). Nevertheless, any novel dealing with personal relationships among a small group of people, especially when many of the characters are related by blood, is likely to be equally narrow in its social compass. If the author attempts to widen the social mix, the result is likely to be a very different kind of work, one dealing with class relationships rather than personal ones.

The book was written in the early sixties, and Murdoch probably deals with sexual matters less frankly than a modern writer would. She implies that there may be a lesbian relationship between Emma and Lindsay, although this is never made explicit. She is, however, more explicit about Humphrey's homosexuality- the reason why his marriage to Mildred is a hollow one- even though male homosexuality was still illegal at the time she was writing. Unlike some sixties writers, however, Murdoch was less concerned with sexual relationships than with emotional states of mind, and her skill in conveying these is masterly. "An Unofficial Rose" well demonstrates why she is regarded as one of the leading British novelists of the late twentieth century.
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Customer Reviews (17)

Imperfection Is The Best A Character Can Do.
There's nothing much to say about this novel, since its characterization and story are already presented in these sixteen reviews, many of them being written by Murdoch's devotees. An additional point however might be that Murdoch does not make-up fictions. Characters' and place names, historical happenings, religious texts, etc imbue fictional facts with two or three allusions. To recognize these parallels is an exercise of memory and astute reading because the reader gets entangled in the emotional excitements of Toby, Dora, Michael, and others as a swimmer in the lake's slimy weeds or a walker on the unexpected forest path. One replay occurs between the monastery's legend of the trespasser and nun and the penetrating actions of Toby and Catherine, who respectively go deeper beyond the cloister's outer wall and into the wood and lake. The reader knows the mental workings of main characters and perceives how their companions assess them. Murdoch however does not reveal everyone's interior, keeping opaque the minds of Nick, Catherine, the Straffords, etc, who nevertheless are assessed by the lay community members. All is contained in the whole -- the still lake through which the mechanical noise cuts, the judgments of fitting in or being out, restrictive rules and wild freedom, the mixed-up attraction of males and females, the invisible life within the cloister and the open-air visibility of the laymen, and the retreat into innocence and the running with experience. This novel packs in everything as if the author is creating the world, consecrating A to Z with love rather than assessment. Each evolving, imperfect character is acceptable and valid without extraneous impositions. S/he naturally heads in the direction of the good.

Did Not Love
This story opens with Dora Greenfield, a creative spirit who has trapped herself in a marriage where the husband spends more time degrading her than nurturing her. She's ran away and shacked up with another free spirit but this doesn't last for long and she ends up following her husband Paul, an art historian, to a small community of God-fearing people who have set up a settlement out side a nunnery called Imber Abbey. This group is lead by Micheal Meade, a man with his own secrets and internal turmoil. Micheal owns the land outside the Abbey which the members affectionately call Imber Court. These two seem like the most unlikely duo to establish a relationship with one another but without knowing it they do.

There are a host of other characters that affect their lives in both positive and negative ways. There's Noel the journalist, Toby the student, Nick the renegade, Catherine the future nun, Murphy the dog, and Gabriel... the bell. A reference to an old church bell buried in the sludge of the lake between the Abbey and the Court is made throughout the book giving it a position of an important character. Dora even suggests as much when the bell is finally unearthed. "She came near to the bell which seemed more and more like a living presence."

There are a number of strong issues throughout the Bell but the most dominant is religion. This is followed by a healthy dose of homosexuality, marriage and adultery. Some sources site a strong theme of good and evil (probably associated with religious beliefs) but I think evil is really too harsh a term. There are no real evil people or situations in this story. It's about a group of people trying to make it through this life as best they know how while dealing with the foreseen, unforeseen and exaggerated bumps they encounter along the way. Murdoch does use her philosophical background to insert interesting questions along the way like: "Could one recognize refinements of good if one did not recognize refinements of evil?"

Iris Murdoch's The Bell is her fourth of twenty-six published novels. It was released in 1958 but takes place in England in the late forties. This is my second Murdoch novel and I found it flows and is much more vivid in detail than her first book, Under the Net. While I felt this book was certainly better than my first taste of Murdoch, as a whole it bored the heck out of me. Seriously, after the first chapter until they brought up the bell I was bored silly. I realized that is quite a subjective statement but if I had not committed myself to reading all her books I probably would have stopped here. Language differences often slow story down: "After breakfast he repaired as usual to the estate office to cast an eye over the day's correspondence (page 88)." Or just unusual, "From within the dog's barking was redoubled (page 53)." And while cliche is perfectly understandable to most I think it's the easy way for someone who was considered such an established writer. Perhaps it is still too early in her works for me to recognize her greatness. Reviewed by M. E. Wood.

Better than the Sea the Sea
I have to say of the two novels I read by Dame Iris Murdoch. I liked this one better than the other one which one the Booker Prize in 1978. Murdoch was an extraordinary person who appeared ordinary to us but had an amazing mind. I think that's part of the problem. She expects others to be similar as well, cerebral or trying to get somewhere higher than lower. Her characters in both novels never really appear content with their lives. While I love the novel cover on both texts, I found Iris' writing to be superb in bringing to life about mundane characters. I think Iris was a great observer in humanity and what she saw as their failings. In life, she was happily married for almost 50 years to John Bayley and led a very active career in the colleges and publishing. Her novels are not set to be easy but an labyrinth of wonder, questions, expectations, and disappointments. Iris' wrote longhand and she wasn't viewed as typically attractive but seen as fun and intelligent beyond belief. She was one of a kind. I don't think it ever occurred to her to leave John ever. THeir relationship was a union based on mutual trust, respect, understanding, and intelligence. They talked about the radio soap, THe ARchers, and lived without a television but in a pigsty. Of course, it was their home. IRis wrote this novel which showed her enormous capacity to love humanity when it doesn't love itself. It's sad but I think Iris was hoping that we evolved higher and sought comforts in the cerebral world. Sorry but I don't most of us have it in us and we resort to settling for spouses, lovers, friends, and jobs much like her characters. Even in this book, Dora seeks happiness elsewhere than London and her marriage. You wonder how many Doras are out there. It's interesting but Iris in both this and The Sea The Sea never really explored children as characters. Both novels seem utterly barren without the presence of children or babies. Maybe because Iris had no use for them herself in her own life, she does not include them in her novels. Maybe the adult characters are the children finding themselves and what makes them happy, content, or satisfied. We know what makes people unhappy, discontent, and unsatisfied.

A Real Page Turner
This early ('50's) Murdoch novel is quite a surprise.I wasn't expecting such an entertaining read.One would not expect it from the plot (misfits gathered at a religious retreat), or the dated themes of religious piety and homosexuality.But I found it an absorbing and fast read.

Murdoch seems to have a talent for getting into the minds of her characters such that their thoughts are our thoughts; one knows exactly where they are coming from because one would have the same set of thoughts.Never a false note tracking the internal dialogue of Toby and Michael.

An Exploration of Darkness and Light

The Bell is an exceptional book.

It resonates with spirituality. It reverberates with sensuality. It probes our identity and reveals a broad spectrum of darkness and light.

In The Bell things are not as they seem. Murdoch creates a world in which nothing is mundane. See for instance how she describes the transforming magic of the evening sun: "They came quite suddenly out of the wood onto the wide expanse of grass near the drive. The great scene, the familiar scene, was there again before them, lit by a very yellow and almost vanished sun, the sky fading to a greenish blue. From here they looked a little down upon the lake and could see, intensely tinted and very still, the reflection in it of the farther slope and the house, clear and pearly grey in the revealing light, its detail sharply defined, starting into nearness. Beyond it on the pastureland, against a pallid line at the horizon, the trees took the declining sun, and one oak tree, its leaves already turning yellow, seemed to be on fire".

Imber Court is the site of a lay community of spiritual seekers. They are struggling on a path of sanctification - living lives of hopeful but naive becoming. Across the brooding waters of a mysterious lake is Imber Abbey; a cloistered community presumably of those who already have become. The Abbey is imbued with supernatural power and light, even as a dark magic lurks beneath the surface of the lake. None in the community of seekers will escape this power encounter unscathed - though in the end for some there is a kind of freedom.

This is a classic in every sense of the word and one that can be read over and over again. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Peter Conradi is literary executor of the estate of Iris Murdoch (1919-99) and was her close friend in the 1980s and '90s, so sensible readers will not expect this to be a warts-and-all biography of the distinguished novelist and philosopher. What they get instead is a warm, appreciative portrait focused on Murdoch's formative years: happy Anglo-Irish childhood; intellectual fulfillment at Oxford University, where she joined the Communist Party and formed many enduring friendships; a stint in the civil service and work with refugees during World War II; and the postwar decade, when she began to write the intellectually challenging yet wickedly entertaining novels that made her reputation. John Bayley movingly described his wife's struggle with Alzheimer's disease in Elegy for Iris, and Conradi wisely does not reiterate that material. He concentrates on recapturing the intense young woman who awed fellow students with her brains and enticed men with her blonde hair and generous figure, yet kept everyone at a slight distance, finding epistolary relationships more manageable than the tangled sexual intrigues her fiction explores so acutely. She had many affairs, including a painful one with expatriate (and married) European intellectual Elias Canetti, but marriage to Bayley in 1956 gave her the stability she needed; over the next 40 years she produced 25 steadily more assured and provocative novels, from Under the Net through A Severed Head and The Black Prince to The Green Knight. Conradi uses interviews and Murdoch's journals to good effect in a lengthy but readable text that illuminates the personal experiences that so intimately informed her fiction. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Bad and the Good: an uneven biography
Review of IRIS MURDOCH, A Life
By Peter J. Conradi
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001


This book is a rich source of research material for those interested in Iris Murdoch. It presents some chronology and summarizes many of her journal entries. Remembrances of her friends and associates are also related. The book dwells on the significant (and perhaps some insignificant) relationships of her life.

This biography is in need of editing in my opinion, because it hasn't a coherent framework. It begins with a chronological account, but fails to maintain that approach to the end. Halfway through it switches concentration to journal entries, which move about in time as they are presented. To perhaps unfairly exaggerate, `in 1967 Iris wrote that blah blah, but in 1963 she also said yadda yadda, while in 1965....' This makes the evolution of her thought difficult to follow.

The book does not present a coherent summary of Murdoch's philosophical approach. There are interesting notes on her novels but they are not comprehensive. One glimpses the recurrent themes, but these aren't presented in an orderly fashion. In short, there is a lack of integration of the life, the relationships, the philosophy and the novels.

The author would have done well to stick with the chronological approach, perhaps presenting Murdoch's philosophy as contained in the books she published and analyzing/presenting her novels in the sequence in which they appeared and as they were embedded in other aspects of her life at the time, such as Murdoch's many relationships. As another reviewer notes, the last ten years of her life are presented in a page and a half or so. One wonders at what was omitted. Nevertheless, the book does present extensive material for the reader.

One of the strongest points of the book is its presentation of Murdoch's self-awareness and continual self-examination. As is evident from her journals, she looked at her own development and feelings toward others and thought about self-improvement.She certainly lived the examined life.Another point of emphasis is her skill at interpersonal relations, to the extent that she seems not to have made any enemies at all during her lifetime. A remarkable person.

My overall impression is that the book was rushed into print. I do wish the author would reissue an edited edition.

good for some readers, not for others
This comprehensive biography gives you the life and thoughts of Iris Murdoch, her development as a writer and as a person.

Her sex life is included, but her relationships are merely mentioned.This is a completely G-rated book, no descriptions, no scenes.The purpose is as much to say whom she did NOT sleep with as it is to say whom she did.Iris was quite gregarious and preferred one-on-one conversations.She met with and had drinks with many different people.Most of these she did not sleep with.But she lived completely by her inclinations of the moment, so men knew that it was always possible they might end up in bed but that they probably wouldn't.This made Iris far more popular than if she had slept with everyone she met.

Also, Iris never seemed to drop or break up with anyone.She just moved on.She was usually involved with several people at any one time, but didn't talk about it.Like all women, she was susceptible to pretty men, and even though she was no beauty herself, she did get involved with two such men.When they dumped her, she was deeply hurt.Men didn't usually dump her.This led to her holding back in relationships, "never giving all the heart" (as Yeats put it).And this may be one factor that led to her ubiquitous portrayal of distanced relationships in her novels.

The other factor is some of the other men she got involved with, especially Canetti.This individual hated women (p. 349).He was "jealous, paranoiac and a mythomaniac" (p. 355).Women, including Iris, adored him to the point of enslavement.He kept many women going at the same time, but hated if any of his women had more than one man.He was also a sadomasochist (p. 357 ff).After having sex, he would contemplate the woman with "a sort of amused hostility" (p. 358).One among the many things he hated was decent people.The characters in his fiction are as sick as he.In 1981 he was given a Nobel Prize for Literature (which tells you something about the Nobel Prize for Literature).His cynical view of people influenced Iris's portrayal of her characters.

This biography also covers in detail Iris's intellectual development, and here is where most readers will get lost.The biographer presents detailed issues in philosophy that Iris wrestled with and assumes the reader is familiar with them.For professional philosophers, this material is interesting and it is refreshing not to have to wade through a lot of entry-level explanations of what Sartre thought, what this is, what that means, etc.Most readers, however, will find this material unintelligible.

Iris hated analytic philosophy and never seems to have learned much of it.As a result, her own thought bounced around wildly, from Marxism in the `30s, to an interest in existentialism, to Catholicism, to Buddhism, etc.Her philosophical thought and writings are rather muddled, as Isaiah Berlin and Stuart Hampshire, among others, were quick to point out when Iris read papers before other professionals.Still, her book on Sartre was one of the first in English and sold well.Sartre was a hot topic in the early 1950s.After Sartre's work was translated into English by Hazel Barnes in the mid-fifties, a better understanding of Sartre began to spread.Even though Iris spent an afternoon in a café talking one-on-one with Sartre, her understanding of his work was limited.Her book should therefore be considered obsolete at this point.

The book is, for the first time, vague about whom she did and didn't sleep with after her marriage to John Bayley.She was 37.He was 30.Iris, never pretty, was definitely showing her age by then.It is tempting to view this marriage as an insurance policy.John was a good-natured, easy-going person.He cooked the meals and generally seems to have behaved as a faithful dog.He was a virgin until she slept with him.Their housekeeping with "beyond bohemian", i.e. nonexistent.For instance, they bought a cheap old country house with no plumbing or heat, but plenty of space.In an abandoned greenhouse they made a small pool.It is an indication of the mentality of both that he hung an electric heater by a string over the pool to provide heat while they were in the pool.He did not read her work in manuscript and sometimes not after publication.Iris did not allow editing of her novels by her editors.

The biographer's preferences about her novels are very much present and are stated as established truths rather than his preferences.Her novels in the 1980s did present more "good" people than previous ones, but there was so much mysticism and so much "metaphysics as a guide to morals" that some readers will be less than thrilled.

Worst.Biography.Ever.
Can you write a biography without being in love with your subject?The question isn't really relevant to this work, because I don't see any evidence that Conradi can write at all.There's plenty of evidence for his fawning, puppy-dog adoration of Dame Murdoch.There's plenty of evidence for half of Oxford's fawning, puppy-dog adoration of her, along with about a fourth of the population of London and assorted Americans and Continentals.Conradi could have called his book "Iris Murdoch and All the People Who Went to Bed with Her: Lives"or "Iris Murdoch: She Almost Makes Me Wish I Weren't Gay" or "Iris Murdoch: If You're English, Your Parents Probably Had Sex with Her.Yes, Both of Them."The bulk of the book is a catalog of love affairs and intrigues that would be over-the-top for a high school prom queen, mixed up with feeble stabs at placing Murdoch's intellectual development.What there's little evidence for is any sense of irony or humor on Conradi's part.I personally could not plop down one-sentence references to Simone Weil, the allegory of the cave, or Holocaust survivor guilt like a giant blob of oatmeal in the midst of a candyfloss paragraph giving me details of Murdoch's vast network of flirtation without intending to be funny.Conradi isn't funny.He's just incoherent.

This obsessive focus on Murdoch's status as sweetheart to the philosophical regiment is not only incredibly boring to read, it's offensive in the same way focus on Doris Lessing's motherhood is offensive.Male writers and intellectuals who leave a child in the care of others, as did Lessing, or who lead complicated romantic lives on a Murdochian scale, are not presented to the world by others as if these are the central facts of their existences.Conradi's book communicates that the most important parts of Murdoch's life were her sexual intrigues.This is an unforgivable reduction of an important moral philosopher and it's going to take me all day curled up with "Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals" to stop feeling icky at having been exposed to it.

The depth of coverage is impressive
Writer and philosopher Murdoch played a major role in English writing for nearly half a century: Iris Murdoch: A Life provides her first authorized biography, examining her life and work and revealing not only connections between her life and her art, but the moral and social changes she helped introduce to new generations. The depth of coverage is impressive.

A WOMEN WHO MANUFACTURED BOOKS
This biography proposes to be about a woman who manufactured 26 novels and who knows what else ( plays etc.).How she did that the author never says . Instead we get knowing little talk about the role of Irish protestants in the 20th century,the life of a lesbian with male friends ,and potted biographies of numerous British personalities and celebrities .We never get a handle on the life of a writer who was a brand name for a while in Britain .We never are told whetherIris Murdoch books sold in the hundreds. ... Read more