Murdoch, Iris (Vol. 2) - Murdoch, Iris 1919–
Murdoch, Iris 1919–
An Irish-born English novelist, Miss Murdoch is the author of A Severed Head, The Bell, and Under the Net. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 13-14.)
Each of Iris Murdoch's first four novels has, as its title, an image of the kind of illusion its characters face. The first novel, Under the Net (1954), tells the story of Jake Donaghue's wanderings about Bohemian London and Paris as he attempts to find or construct a satisfactory way of life. But planned ways of life are nets, traps, no matter how carefully or rationally the net is woven, and Jake discovers that none of these narrow paths really works. The nets in the novel range from logical-positivist philosophy and left-wing politics through miming theatricals to film scripts and sophisticated blackmail. In the second novel, The Flight from the Enchanter (1956), Miss Murdoch deals with a different sort of illusion. All the characters are...
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