Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)
Author of The Sea, the Sea
About the Author
Iris Murdoch was one of the twentieth century's most prominent novelists, winner of the Booker Prize for The Sea. She died in 1999. (Publisher Provided) Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin, Ireland on July 15, 1919. She was educated at Badminton School in Bristol and Oxford University, where she read show more classics, ancient history, and philosophy. After several government jobs, she returned to academic life, studying philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948, she became a fellow and tutor at St. Anne's College, Oxford. She also taught at the Royal College of Art in London. A professional philosopher, she began writing novels as a hobby, but quickly established herself as a genuine literary talent. She wrote over 25 novels during her lifetime including Under the Net, A Severed Head, The Unicorn, and Of the Nice and the Good. She won several awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Black Prince in 1973 and the Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea in 1978. She died on February 8, 1999 at the age of 79. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: © Steve Pyke 1990 (use of image requires permission from Steve Pyke)
Works by Iris Murdoch
The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists. Based upon the Romanes Lecture (Oxford Paperbacks) (1977) 119 copies
The Novels of Iris Murdoch Volume Two: The Flight from the Enchanter, The Red and the Green, and The Time of the Angels (2018) 9 copies
The Novels of Iris Murdoch Volume One: Henry and Cato, The Italian Girl, and The Philosopher's Pupil (2018) 9 copies
The Novels of Iris Murdoch Volume Three: A Word Child, An Unofficial Rose, and Bruno's Dream (2018) 6 copies
La salvación por las palabras : ¿puede la literatura curarnos de los males de la filosofía? (2014) 6 copies
O Sino 4 copies
Canterburyjske priče 4 copies
Algo del otro mundo (IMPEDIMENTA) 2 copies
Hoe bewijs ik het bestaan van God 2 copies
Ḥalomo shel Bruno 1 copy
Unicórnio 1 copy
Ο Μαύρος Πρίγκηπας 1 copy
Een filosofie van de liefde 1 copy
Henry e Cato 1 copy
Przypadkowy cz¿owiek 1 copy
İTALYAN KIZI 1 copy
Tilfælghedens spil 1 copy
[Notebook : 34 pages occupied with lists of words in Russian with their English translations] 1 copy
[Make a joyful noise Vol. 2] 1 copy
[Make a joyful noise Vol. 1] 1 copy
Hver tar sin 1 copy
Murdoch, Iris Archive 1 copy
Against Dryness 1 copy
Os Olhos da Aranha Livro 1 1 copy
Çan 1 copy
Сочинения в 3-Х томах 1 copy
Associated Works
Plato's Republic: Critical Essays (Critical Essays on the Classics Series) (1997) — Contributor — 35 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Murdoch, Dame Jean Iris
- Other names
- Murdoch, Jean Iris
- Birthdate
- 1919-07-15
- Date of death
- 1999-02-08
- Burial location
- Ashes scattered in the garden of Oxford Crematorium
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Dublin, Ireland
- Place of death
- Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Cause of death
- Alzheimer's disease
- Places of residence
- Dublin, Ireland
London, England, UK
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK - Education
- Oxford University (BA|1942|Somerville College)
University of Cambridge (Newnham College)
Badminton School, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, UK - Occupations
- novelist
philosopher - Relationships
- Bayley, John (husband)
- Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Foreign Honorary, Literature | 1975)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Foreign Honorary Member | 1982)
St Anne's College, Oxford University - Awards and honors
- Royal Society of Literature Companion of Literature
Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander ∙ 1987)
Golden PEN Award (1997)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Man Booker Prize - Agent
- Ed Victor
- Short biography
- Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin, Ireland, the only child of an Anglo-Irish family. When she was a baby, the family moved to London, where her father worked as a civil servant. She attended the Badminton School as a boarder from 1932 to 1938. In 1938, she enrolled at Oxford University, where she read Classics. She graduated with a First Class Honors degree in 1942 and got a job with the Treasury. In 1944, she joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), working in Brussels, Innsbruck, and Graz for two years. She then returned to her studies and became a postgraduate at Cambridge University. In 1948, she became a fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, where she taught philosophy until 1963. In 1956, she married John Bayley, a literary critic, novelist, and English professor at Oxford. She published her debut novel, Under the Net, in 1954 and went on to produce 25 more novels and additional acclaimed works of philosophy, poetry and drama. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1982, and named a Dame Commander of Order of the British Empire in 1987. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1997 and died two years later.
Members
Discussions
Group Read, June 2022: The Sea, the Sea in 1001 Books to read before you die (July 2022)
Group Read, July 2018: Under The Net in 1001 Books to read before you die (July 2018)
The Bell in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2018)
Musing on Murdoch in General in Iris Murdoch readers (October 2017)
The Nice and the Good in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2017)
The Italian Girl in Iris Murdoch readers (November 2015)
The Sea, the Sea in Iris Murdoch readers (September 2015)
The Sandcastle in Iris Murdoch readers (January 2015)
The Green Knight in Iris Murdoch readers (May 2014)
The Unicorn in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2014)
***Group Read, October 2013: The Bell by Iris Murdoch in 1001 Books to read before you die (October 2013)
The Book and the Brotherhood in Iris Murdoch readers (October 2013)
A Severed Head in Iris Murdoch readers (May 2013)
The Black Prince in Iris Murdoch readers (May 2013)
The Philosopher's Pupil in Iris Murdoch readers (April 2013)
The Good Apprentice in Iris Murdoch readers (March 2013)
Something Special in Iris Murdoch readers (March 2013)
Henry and Cato in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2013)
A Word Child in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2013)
Bruno's Dream in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2013)
An Unofficial Rose in Iris Murdoch readers (February 2013)
Henry Cato in Iris Murdoch readers (January 2013)
Murdoch & Mayhem in 75 Books Challenge for 2012 (December 2012)
Reviews
Lists
1950s (1)
Unread books (1)
Nifty Fifties (1)
First Novels (1)
Revolutions (1)
Folio Society (1)
5 Best 5 Years (1)
1970s (1)
Big Jubilee List (1)
Franklit (1)
Five star books (1)
Booker Prize (7)
Read This Next (1)
Didactic Fiction (2)
Art of Reading (2)
Female Author (3)
Favourite Books (1)
Best Beach Reads (1)
Summer Books (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 86
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 26,294
- Popularity
- #798
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 567
- ISBNs
- 692
- Languages
- 26
- Favorited
- 137
I can nearly relate to Charles' age, and certainly to his love for solitude. I hope I can't relate to his self-centeredness and insensitivity, his quick judgements that dismiss others as more shallow than himself. Other than his father there is no one he has revered, except for one woman - the one person he will only mention in passing and not write about at all. It is she who appears at last. If you can recall a moment of love in your life that went left instead of going right, this novel is largely stemming that moment. When an opportunity comes that feels like a second chance, what then? Strange things begin to happen in and around Charles' home. A sea monster surfaces on the ocean. Decorations tumble and self-destruct. A face appears in a window and then is gone. And Charles gets his second chance.
Charles is not a nice man. His explanations for his renewed obsession are more like rationalizations, and there's a clear hypocricy in his reasoning. So long as it is others who are feeling driven to approach him and he who wants nothing to do with them, his responses are merely loathsome and unvarnished. When the shoe is on the other foot, he expects to be granted his desire and becomes a threatening figure. Lizzie and Rosina are fascinating externalizations of his own emerging issues: his blind indulgence in love, his jealous anger and irrationalism.
Memories and dreams are his primary drivers - like the sea, a wide placid surface into which he dives and swims, a sea that lets him go only reluctantly, often threatening to drown him, sometimes surprising with what rises to the surface. Mortality and rejection conspire to confront him with his egotism, but he is not remorseful even when he comes closest to penetrating his own illusions: "We must live by the light of our own self-satisfaction, through that secret vital busy inwardness which is even more remarkable than our reason." What doesn't accord can be shied away from, and there are always other illusions to be had.… (more)