The Bell
by Iris Murdoch
- 1 Members Following
Follow a topic to see new activity, such as homework help questions and answers, in your personal feed on the homepage.
Navigate
At a glance:
- Author: Iris Murdoch
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Philosophical comedy
- Time of Work: Mid-twentieth century
- Setting: Imber Court, England
- Characters: Michael Meade, James Tayper Pace, Catherine Fawley, Nick Fawley, Paul Greenfield, Dora Greenfield, Toby Gashe, Mother Clare
- Genres: Long fiction, Philosophical realism, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Mental illness, England or English people, Legends, Eccentrics or eccentricities, Convents or nunneries, Nuns, Religious life, Bells
- Locales: Europe, England, United Kingdom
Analysis
Iris Murdoch has the habit of seizing upon her material with a grasp so vigorous and complete that she is capable of an amazing variety of effects—joy, farce, grotesquerie, wit, violence, tenderness—always with shrewd insight into the oddities and frailties of the human animal. The result is that her novels exhibit a kind of thoroughgoingness rare in contemporary fiction, where most writers are satisfied to present only a fragmented view of experience or to achieve a picture of life in one of its familiar but flattish aspects such as social criticism, character...
(The entire page is 1414 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
