Айрис Мердок: The Nice and the Good

Iris Murdoch's novels have always been noted for their ntelligent, witty observation of character and place.

Under the Net, her first novel, about a struggling young writer at large in London, she showed too a brilliant ]air for fast-paced comedy.

The Flight from the Enchanter in her second novel, Iris Murdoch strikes a delicate, alance between absurdity and tragedy, between –ealism and fantasy. In the opinion of many devotees his is her most entrancing novel.

When An Unofficial Rose was first published in 1962 it was almost unanimously acknowledged by the critics as a masterpiece.

An Unofficial Rose is in the great tradition of the English romantic novel; a love story that has not been debased by sentimentality. Iris Murdoch dissects and lays bare the anatomy of human relationships with such skill that to read her can, at times, be an almost overwhelming emotional experience.

The Bell

When a group of well-meaning neurotics comes together in a lay religious community to try to forge a new and better life, the situation calls out all the humour and insight for which Iris Murdoch is famous.

The theme of her novel is the dark conflict between sex and religion, symbolized by the new and the old bells of the abbey convent across the lake.

Here is a story which again demonstrates this writer's unusual sensitivity and her talent for creating character.

There seems to be no limit to the self-destructive cancer of this family divided against itself. This is his Murdoch in frighteningly sombre mood. Never has she used to greater effect her talent for laying bare the deepest and most secret places of a human being.