A Severed Head (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Iris Murdoch
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1960’s
- Setting: London, Cambridge, and Oxford, England
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Satire, Farce
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, Self-discovery, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Marriage, Betrayal, Friendship, Incest, Obsession, England or English people, Reality, Alcohol, Adultery, London, Naivete, Fog
- Locales: London, England, Cambridge, England, Oxford, England
Characters Discussed
Martin Lynch-Gibbon, the forty-one-year- old, oversensitive, intellectual narrator, a wine tradesman by vocation, having taken over the family business. He has acquired a reputation as a morose and reclusive cynic. The neurotic, misguided, and generally naïve narrator tells his story of love, romance, lust, incest, and adultery in an aura of 1960’s liberalism toward these matters. At the beginning, he is happy and in love with both his wife, Antonia, and his mistress, Georgie Hands. This stability ends when Antonia reveals her affair with and coming...
[The entire page is 1102 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
