A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Iris Murdoch
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: London, England
- Principal Characters: Hilda Foster, Rupert Foster, Peter Foster, Tallis Browne, Morgan Browne, Julius King, Axel Nilsson, Simon Foster
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Philosophical realism
- Subjects: Values, 1960’s, Power, personal or social, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Love or romance, Middle classes, Adultery, Good and evil, Parables, London, Human behavior, Devils or demons, Comedy, Civil service
- Locales: London, England
Form and Content
A Fairly Honourable Defeat is the story of a group of people, active in the busy world of London, whose lives are anchored in the various kinds of love they have found, or lost. The two sisters at the heart of the novel, Hilda and Morgan, respectively exemplify a devoted, dedicated love for one man and the muddled explorations of love by a promiscuous woman. At the time Iris Murdoch wrote the novel, she was interested in exploring the power of evil, and her title refers to the triumph of evil over good as the theme is played out in the plot. In the...
[The entire page is 2059 words long]
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