Synopses & Reviews
Bran Nicol traces the preoccupation in Murdoch's fiction with the way the past makes its mark upon us, haunting us and eluding our attempts to grasp it. This argument was given an extra resonance by the death of Murdoch after Alzheimer's disease in 1999, when the first edition was published. This new edition includes detailed readings of novels not discussed in the original (
The Bell, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, and
The Philosopher's Pupil) and includes a new preface, an updated bibliography and three new chapters covering Murdoch's most important and popular novels, considering in more depth her relationship with the dominant literary and intellectual currents of her time.
Review
Reviews for the first edition:
"...lucid, insightful and well-documented"--David Herman, Modern Fiction Studies
"...An interesting and lucid book about Murdoch's narrators, a subject that has not had proper attention."--George Soule, The Iris Murdoch Newsletter
About the Author
Bran Nicol is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition * Preface to the First Edition * Acknowledgements * List of Abbreviations * Revisiting the Sublime and the Beautiful: Iris Murdoch's Realism * The Insistence of the Past Narrative as Redemption:
The Bell * Author and Hero: Murdoch's First-Person Retrospective Novels * Reading Past Truth:
Under the Net and
The Black Prince * The Writing Cure:
A Severed Head and
A Word Child * The Ambivalence of Coming Home:
The Italian Girl and
The Sea, the Sea * Philosophy's Dangerous Pupil:
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Derrida, and
The Philosopher's Pupil * Postscript: Reading Iris Murdoch * Notes * Bibliography * Index