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Iris Murdoch
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Standard Name: Murdoch, Iris
Birth Name: Jean Iris Murdoch
Married Name: Jean Iris Bailey
IM
, active from the second world war till almost the end of the twentieth century, was best known as a philosophical novelist with a wild sense of comedy. Her twenty-six novels foreground philosophic issues similar to those discussed in her well-regarded academic publications. She contributed to many periodicals, and wrote plays for stage and radio, an opera libretto, and poetry.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Family and Intimate relationships | Maureen Duffy | MD
was living with a female partner when in summer 1967 her fellow-novelist Brigid Brophy
fell in love with her. A former lover, Iris Murdoch
, magnanimously hoped that this relationship would prove something stable... |
| Textual Production | Daphne Du Maurier | She refused to let anyone write an introduction, and was outraged that her publishers suggested Iris Murdoch
as one possible candidate for this role. DDM
did not care for Murdoch and was disdainful about her... |
| Instructor | Jennifer Dawson | Sent to study political theory for one term with Iris Murdoch
, she spent a whole year studying philosophy under her tuition. She later wrote that Murdoch showed me the springs to drink from. Dawson, Jennifer. “Impressions of Iris Murdoch, Teacher, in 1951”. The Ship, Vol. 91 , pp. 52-3. 52 |
| Leisure and Society | Ivy Compton-Burnett | ICB
was scathing about the work of some younger novelists, like Iris Murdoch
and Muriel Spark
(though she took Murdoch more seriously than Spark). Liddell, Robert, and Francis King. Elizabeth and Ivy. Peter Owen. 86, 93-4 |
| Textual Features | A. S. Byatt | |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | A. S. Byatt | The writers considered (each for a single novel) are Jane Austen
, Charlotte Brontë
, George Eliot
, Willa Cather
(for nine of whose works ASB
also wrote Virago
introductions), British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo. |
| Textual Production | A. S. Byatt | ASB
published her first book of literary criticism, Degrees of Freedom: The Novels of Iris Murdoch; it was also the first full-length study of Murdoch. Kelly, Kathleen Coyne. A.S. Byatt. Twayne. 129, 151 |
| Friends, Associates | A. S. Byatt | Iris Murdoch
became a friend of ASB
by 1968 and an important friend by May 1970. When Byatt was bereaved, Murdoch broke her engagements to be with her. Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins. 518-19 and n106 |
| Friends, Associates | Brigid Brophy | BB
's close friends included writers Elizabeth Jane Howard
, Shena Mackay
, and Iris Murdoch
, whom she met at Cheltenham in summer 1955. Murdoch's letters to Brophy reveal the depth and many-sidedness of... |
| Dedications | Brigid Brophy | It was still in print in 1988. Waterstone’s Guide to Books. Waterstone and Company. 530 Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins. 487 |
| Literary responses | Brigid Brophy | Murdoch
thought it a lovely handsome clever book, with excellence on every page . . . . You must be the first person who has described sexual intercourse beautifully and well in a book. I... |
| Literary responses | Brigid Brophy | In her journal (where literary praise is rare) Iris Murdoch
recorded her enjoyment of The Finishing Touch. Murdoch
reviewed The Snow Ball, calling it very beautiful and praising its sheer artistic insolence. Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins. 487 |
| Literary responses | Brigid Brophy | Seven years after its publication Iris Murdoch
named this novel to the Times Literary Supplement as deserving to be better known. Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins. 487n64 |
| Literary responses | Brigid Brophy | Reviewers were hard on this book (it made them nervous, wrote Iris Murdoch
). Murdoch responded by drafting a blurb: Miss Brophy has written an ambitious serious disturbing book. It is rich, original and witty... |
| Literary responses | Brigid Brophy | One review was headed And Then There Were Fifty-One. Iris Murdoch
's low opinion caused a temporary rift in her friendship with the author. Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins. 488 |
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