A selection of Iris Murdoch's most interesting and important letters that gives us a living portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and thinkers. It is Murdoch in her own words, from her schoolgirl days to her last years. It also reveals her personal life, the subject of much speculation, in all its intriguing complexity.
Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real
This selection of Iris Murdochs most interesting and important letters gives us a living portrait of one of the twentieth centurys greatest writers and thinkers. Here for the first time is Murdoch in her own words, from her schoolgirl days to her last years.
The letters show a great mind at work we watch the young Murdoch struggling with philosophical issues, often unsure of herself; witness her anguish when a novel wont come together; observe her involved in world events and exploring sensuality. They are full of sharp humour and irreverence. They also reveal her personal life, the subject of much speculation, in all its intriguing complexity: her emotional hunger and her tendency to live on the edge of what was socially acceptable. Gradually, we see how this fed into her novels plots and characters, despite her claims that her fiction was not drawn from reality.
Quite apart from giving these valuable insights, her letters bring us closer than ever before to Iris Murdoch as a person. They make for an extraordinary and intimate reading experience: she is wonderful company.
Recenzijas
Astonishing -- John Sutherland Deeply impressive * Guardian * Reading these letters is like living Murdoch's whole creatively, sexually and intellectually voracious life alongside her, and at breakneck speed. Thrilling -- Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne The letters themselves have been selected with conviction and care...the overwhelming sense of this volume is one of richness * Times Literary Supplement * Her mind, here as in everything she wrote, is formidable * New York Times * Astonishing epistolary abundance from a woman who meant it when she told a friend that she could "live in letters"... Few books leave the reader with as dizzying sense of the need to question absolutely everything * Daily Telegraph * We find a passionate engagement with the world of ideas, but most of all with friends, lovers, and pupils. These letters reveal Murdoch's extraordinary talent for affection, exuberant sense of fun, razor-sharp intelligence, and acute awareness of the transcendent -- Karen Armstrong Exemplary... The reader grows up and grows old with Murdoch * Literary Review * This collection of letters provides a fascinating insight into the life of a complex and important novelist. It is a wonderful book -- Alexander McCall Smith Murdoch was not writing for posterity; she was writing for her friends, or rather as a way of maintaining her friendships, whether intellectual, passionate or both...the letters reinforce Murdoch's qualities as a person * Independent *
Papildus informācija
Iris Murdoch's life, in her own words, from her schoolgirl days to her last years
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. She read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, and after working in the Treasury and abroad, was awarded a research studentship in philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948 she returned to Oxford as fellow and tutor at St Annes College and later taught at the Royal College of Art. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 and in the 1997 PEN Awards received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature.
Iris Murdoch made her writing debut in 1954 with Under the Net. Her twenty-six novels include the Booker prize-winning The Sea, The Sea (1978), the James Tait Black Memorial prize-winning The Black Prince (1973) and the Whitbread prize-winning The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974). Her philosophy includes Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953) and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992); other philosophical writings, including The Sovereignty of Good (1970), are collected in Existentialists and Mystics (1997).
Avril Horner is Emeritus Professor of English at Kingston University, London. She writes on women authors and Gothic fiction; her publications include co-authored books on Daphne du Maurier and Edith Wharton. With Anne Rowe she co-edited Iris Murdoch and Morality (2010) and Iris Murdoch: Texts and Contexts (2012).
Anne Rowe is Associate Professor of English Literature and Director of the Iris Murdoch Archive Project at Kingston University. She is Lead Editor of the Iris Murdoch Review and her publications include The Visual Arts and Iris Murdoch (2002) and, with Priscilla Martin, Iris Murdoch: A Literary Life (2011).
