Iris Murdoch

P det engelske gods Imber Court lever en gruppe mennesker sammen til trods for deres vidt forskellige v sener. Alle har de hver deres bagage at b re rundt p og hver deres historie fyldt med nederlag, sorger og konflikter. Derfor har de installeret sig i dette ingenmandsland, hvor omverdenen ikke kan n dem. Denne illusion bliver dog brudt, da to udefrakommende en dag bes ger omr det og f r rusket op i den kunstige tilv relse, som de mange beboere indtil da har levet i. Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) var en britisk forfatter, der fik sin debut som romanforfatter i 1954 med v rket "Under the Net", der blev udgivet p dansk i 1971 under titlen "Under nettet". Murdochs forfatterskab sp ndte vidt og omfattede blandt andet - udover romaner - ogs filosofiske afhandlinger. I l bet af hendes karriere var hun gennemg ende fokuseret p det moderne menneskes eksistentielle vilk r og situation, og i hendes senere forfatterskab var hun s rligt kendt for sine hyppigt forekommende teatermetaforer.

Finding himself surrounded by predatory friends and relations - his ex-wife, her delinquent brother, a younger, deplorably successful writer, Arnold Baffin, Baffin's restless wife and engaging daughter - Bradley attempts to escape.

Guilt, secrets, and lies haunt two men whose lives are bound by a long-ago tragedy in this "riveting" novel by the author of The Sea, The Sea (Los Angeles Times). Twenty years ago, Hilary Burde's story was one of remarkable success and enviable courage. Having brought himself out of a troubled childhood with only his intellect and wit, he was one of the most promising scholars at Oxford, a student with a rare talent for linguistics and an unquenchable drive. Until the accident. Now, forty-one and a decidedly ordinary failure, Hilary finds his quietly angry routine shattered when his old professor reappears in his life--a man whose own demons are tied to Hilary's and the tragedy from years ago. As the two men begin to circle each other once again, digging up old wrongs and seeking forgiveness for long-buried ills, they find themselves on a path that will either grant them both redemption or destroy them both forever. Haunting and emotional, A Word Child is an intimate look at the madness of regret by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of Under the Net and A Severed Head.

Discover Murdochâ??s wonderful writing in this compelling story of a young woman and an unusual religious lay community. A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home to an enclosed order of nuns.

The quiet life of schoolteacher Bill Mor and his family is disturbed when Rain Carter arrives at the school to paint the portrait of the headmaster. Mor becomes aware of new desires and his wife and children fight discreetly and ruthlessly against Rain and her influence over him.

Hilary Burde, saved by education from a delinquent childhood, cheated out of Oxford by a tragic love triangle, cherishes his obsessive guilt and disappointment in dull civil service job. When the man he has harmed reappears as head of his department, Hilary hopes for forgiveness and a new life.

The story of a lay community of mixed-up people encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an enclosed order of nuns, follows the lives of Dora Greenfield, an erring wife who returns to her husband, and Michael Meade, who is confronted by his homosexual former lover. Repriint.

Martin believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STEPHEN MEDCALFWhen Marian Taylor takes the post of governess at Gaze castle, remote house on a beautiful but desolate coast, she finds herself confronted with many strange mysteries. What kind of crime or catastrophe in the past still keeps the house under a brooding spell?

Edmund has escaped from his family into a lonely life. One by one his relatives reveal their secrets to a reluctant Edmund: illicit affairs, hidden passions, shameful scandals. And the heart of all, there is, as always, the family's loyal servant, the Italian girl.

When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage.

A brilliant mythical drama about well-meaning people trapped in a war of spiritual forcesMarian Taylor, who has come as a “companion” to a lovely woman in a remote castle, becomes aware that her employer is a prisoner, not only of her obsessions, but of an unforgiving husband.Hannah, the Unicorn, seemingly an image of persecuted virtue, fascinates those who surround her, some of whom plan to rescue her from her dream of redemptive suffering. But is she an innocent victim, a guilty woman, a mad woman, or a witch? Is her spiritual life really some evil enchantment? If she is forcibly liberated will she die? The ordinary, sensible people survive, and are never sure whether they have understood.

Edmund has escaped from his family into a lonely life. He returns home for his mother's funeral and finds himself involved in the same awful problems he left behind, together with some new ones. He also rediscovers the eternal family servant, the ever-changing "Italian girl".4 women, 3 men

Reunited childhood friends confront their longings and failures in this "engaging" novel by a Man Booker Prize-winning author (The New York Times). As children growing up in the English countryside, Henry Marshalson and Cato Forbes were inseparable. But, as time went on, their lives took different paths. For Henry, whose older brother would inherit his father's estate, the United States called, with a professorship to teach art history, while Cato devoted himself to the Catholic priesthood and a mission in London. But when Henry's brother dies, leaving him sole heir to his family's vast estate, Henry and Cato find themselves connecting once more and reexamining the paths their lives have taken. As Henry struggles to come to terms with his personal passions and family obligations, and Cato fights against his religious doubts and darker urges, both men find themselves entwined in a deadly intrigue that could ruin not only their lives but also the lives of those they hold dear. A dizzying display of complex plotting, Henry and Cato was praised as "Murdoch's finest novel" by Joyce Carol Oates, a spectacular combination of thrilling action and moral philosophizing that will leave readers spellbound.

Embedsmanden Hilary Burde begik i sine yngre dage en katastrofal fejltagelse, som har plaget ham lige siden. Derfor tager han med kysh nd imod chancen for at rette op p sine handlinger og r de bod p sin fortid, da han 20 r senere igen m der den mand, han gjorde uret. F r Hilary ved af det, har han dog forelsket sig i mandens hustru - og Hilarys soning har pludselig meget komplicerede og lange udsigter. Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) var en britisk forfatter, der fik sin debut som romanforfatter i 1954 med v rket "Under the Net", der blev udgivet p dansk i 1971 under titlen "Under nettet". Murdochs forfatterskab sp ndte vidt og omfattede blandt andet - udover romaner - ogs filosofiske afhandlinger. I l bet af hendes karriere var hun gennemg ende fokuseret p det moderne menneskes eksistentielle vilk r og situation, og i hendes senere forfatterskab var hun s rligt kendt for sine hyppigt forekommende teatermetaforer.

En romantisk og humoristisk spændingsroman om opklaringen af et mord på et engelsk landsted. Her bliver bogens hovedperson, Gray Octavian, hvirvlet ind i de lokales mystiske – ja, næsten magiske – liv og kærlighedsforhold. Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) var en irsk forfatter og filosof, der særligt beskæftigede sig med dualistiske spørgsmål som godhed og ondskab. Iris Murdochs filosofiske ideer smittede af på hendes skønlitterære forfatterskab, der også tager netop samme spørgsmål om menneskets gode og dårlige sider, om moral, etik, kærlighed og ondskab op.

These two major novels--by one of the most influential British writers of the twentieth century--are ferociously dark comedies that combine playfulness with profundity. A Severed Head (1961) is one of Iris Murdoch's most entertaining works, tracing the turbulent emotional journey of Martin Lynch-Gibbon, a smug, prosperous London wine merchant and unfaithful husband, whose life is turned inside out when his wife leaves him for her psychoanalyst. The story takes bedroom farce to a new level of sophistication, with scenes that are both wickedly funny and emblematic of the way momentous moral issues play out in everyday life. The Booker Prize-winning The Sea, the Sea (1978) is set on the edge of England's North Sea, where egotistical Charles Arrowby, a big name in London's glittering theatrical world, has retreated into seclusion to write his memoirs. Arrowby's plans begin to unravel when he encounters his long-lost first love and finds himself increasingly besieged by his own fantasies, delusions, and obsessions. Both novels are tragicomic masterpieces that brilliantly dramatize how much our lives are governed by the lies we tell ourselves and by the all-consuming need for love, meaning, and redemption. Introduction by Sarah Churchwell

First published in 1961, The Severed Head is regarded is one of Iris Murdoch’s most entertaining works. A dark and ferocious comic masterpiece, the novel traces the turbulent emotional journey of Martin Lynch-Gibbon, a smug, well-to-do London wine merchant and unfaithful husband, whose life is turned inside out when his wife leaves him for her psychoanalyst. In The Sea, the Sea the landscape shifts to the seclusion of an isolated house on the edge of England’s North Sea, where Charles Arrowby, a big name in London’s glittering theatrical world, has retired to write his memoirs. Arrowby’s plans begin to unravel when he meets his first love and becomes haunted by the idea of rekindling his adolescent passion. The Severed Head and Booker prize-winner The Sea, the Sea are two of Iris Murdoch’s most accomplished novels, displaying all her talent for combining profundity with playful creativity. Both tragic and comic, brooding and hilarious, they brilliantly reveal how much our lives are governed by the lies we tell ourselves as well as our all-consuming desire for love, significance and, ultimately, redemption.

Iris Murdoch was an acclaimed novelist and groundbreaking philosopher whose life reflected her unconventional beliefs and values. But what has been missing from biographical accounts has been Murdoch's own voice-her life in her own words. Living on Paper-the first major collection of Murdoch's most compelling and interesting personal letters-gives, for the first time, a rounded self-portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and thinkers. With more than 760 letters, fewer than forty of which have been published before, the book provides a unique chronicle of Murdoch's life from her days as a schoolgirl to her last years. The result is the most important book about Murdoch in more than a decade.The letters show a great mind at work-struggling with philosophical problems, trying to bring a difficult novel together, exploring spirituality, and responding pointedly to world events. They also reveal her personal life, the subject of much speculation, in all its complexity, especially in letters to lovers or close friends, such as the writers Brigid Brophy, Elias Canetti, and Raymond Queneau, philosophers Michael Oakeshott and Philippa Foot, and mathematician Georg Kreisel. We witness Murdoch's emotional hunger, her tendency to live on the edge of what was socially acceptable, and her irreverence and sharp sense of humor. We also learn how her private life fed into the plots and characters of her novels, despite her claims that they were not drawn from reality.Direct and intimate, these letters bring us closer than ever before to Iris Murdoch as a person, making for an extraordinary reading experience.

JB Priestley's adaptation of Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head.4 women, 3 men