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 descending Excerpt
Reception Barbara Pym
Pym is not one of those women writers whose stock has risen through feminist re-evaluation. Five years after the influential Times Literary Supplement article was published, Penelope Lively wrote, I am always surprised that the...
Reception Kathleen Raine
KR declined the invitation of the Royal Society of Literature to become a Companion of Literature, saying the companionship had been cheapened by its award to the journalistsIris Murdoch and Anthony Burgess .
Watts, Janet. “Kathleen Raine”. The Guardian, p. 25.
25
Reception Kathleen Raine
Iris Murdoch bought this book as a present for her mentor Donald MacKinnon .
Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch. A Life. HarperCollins.
258
Family and Intimate relationships Bernice Rubens
Peter Conradi (biographer of Iris Murdoch ) writes that BR had an affair with an American, Allan Forbes (partly influenced by the philosopher and family friend Elias Canetti , who arranged for her and Forbes...
Literary responses Muriel Spark
The London theatre critics were scathing, with only two exceptions (though one of these, Harold Hobson , carried a lot of weight). Pamela Hansford Johnson trounced the play on the BBC 's radio programme The...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Alison Uttley
Among later literary judgements, she pronounced Iris Murdoch 's The Bell (published in November 1958) brilliant . . . the characterisation, presentation, perfectation. But too much homosexuality.
Judd, Denis. Alison Uttley. Michael Joseph.
212
Literary responses Marina Warner
Critics admired the novel for its skilled use of plot, characterisation, and lyrical descriptions. Some compared MW to Iris Murdoch .
Moseley, Merritt, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 194. Gale Research.
194: 284
Intertextuality and Influence Sarah Waters
SW puts in puts in something like a regular work day when writing, but keeps going to all hours when re-writing. Despite her success, she still finds the process largely torture. And yet [s]tarting...
Friends, Associates Harriet Shaw Weaver
Working in the left-wing bookshop early in her time at Oxford, HSW became acquainted with Iris Murdoch , who was then an undergraduate at Somerville College and who frequented the shop. Weaver was finishing...
Reception Mary Wesley
James Hale , who had liked her first novel, said that this one stepped forward, in literary terns, roughly a mile from there. I haven't enjoyed reading a novel so much in years. Its line...
Occupation Rebecca West
The prize went to P. H. Newby 's Something to Answer For, which according to Kermode years later was a compromise decision. Dame Rebecca didn't dislike it as much as nearly all the others...

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Texts

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