Analyses the plots and themes of all 26 novels, and gives critical evaluations of them.
Places the novels within a conceptual framework, showing how the author was pursuing a quest through philosophy, psychology and social drama.
Highlights the spiritual impulse in her work, her search for a religion without God.
Contains a chapter on Murdoch’s philosophical ideas, and how they related to her fiction.
Iris Murdoch: A Guide to the Novels
Iris Murdoch was the most distinctive, challenging and talked-about English novelist of her time. The stream of books which she produced between 1954 and 1994 were intense, imaginative, philosophical thrillers. They were so packed with extraordinary characters and incidents that she can be said to have created her own Murdoch-world, which fascinated readers worldwide. When reading Murdoch, people were conscious of encountering a mind and an imagination that were exceptional, indeed unique.
But few would dispute that these novels are demanding and often confusing, and this guide has been written in an attempt to assist readers in clarifying their own thoughts about her work. It analyses each novel in turn, commenting on the distinctive themes which Murdoch explored throughout her life, and shows how her ideas about what the novel could be became steadily more ambitious. The author argues that Murdoch was engaged in an intellectual quest which made the novels deeper, more serious and more purposeful, and at the same time richer, more absorbing and exciting to read. He also sheds light on the relationship between Murdoch’s fiction and the many philosophical ideas which she sets out in her major work, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals.
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