Literature / Writer's Datebook: July 15
Brief biography of Iris Murdoch, Anglo-Irish novelist, philosopher, and playwright, an important writer of her generation, known for The Bell and Under the Net.
Jean Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), was a British novelist, philosopher and playwright. She wrote many books on philosophy, aside from novels and plays. Her novel The Sea, the Sea (1978), won her the Booker Prize. In recognition of her work she was made a Dame in 1987.
Early Life of Iris Murdoch
Murdoch was born on July 15, 1919, in Dublin, Ireland, but was brought up in England. Her mother was Irish and her father English. She studied philosophy and the classics at Oxford University, at the same time wrote novels about the free will, and the relationship of good and evil. After graduating from Oxford University, she worked for the United Nations as an administrative officer. From 1948 to 1963 she taught philosophy at Oxford. In 1956, she married the novelist and critic John Bayley.
Murdoch's Writing: Novels, Philosophical Works and Plays
Murdoch's first book was about philosophy. She began writing stories as a hobby, and her first novel, Under the Net, came out when she was 35. It was an instant success, and she has since followed it by over twenty other books as well as more philosophical works.
The Bell, whose subject is an unofficial religious community, is regarded as one of her best novels. A Severed Head, first published as a novel, was turned into a play with the help of J.B. Priestley, a prominent 20th-century writer. She later wrote several more plays.
Murdoch's novels combine realistic characters at the same time delving on the fantastic realm, many of them with a philosophical or a religious theme. For example, The Time of the Angels features a priest in an inner-city parish who goes in for devil worship. Some critics describe her novels as 'psychological detective stories' because of the way in which they investigate in great detail the motives and consequences of the characters' behavior.
Final Years
Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1996. Her husband, novelist John Bayley, took care of her and wrote about their marriage in Elegy for Iris. She died at the age of 79, on February 8, 1999.
Books by Iris Murdoch
Under the Net, 1954
The Bell, 1958
A Severed Head, 1961
The Time of the Angels, 1965
The Two Arrows, 1972
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, 1974
The Sea, the Sea, 1978
The Nice and the good, 1978
The Philosopher's Pupil, 1983
The Good Apprentice, 1985
The Unicorn, 1987
The Message to the Planet, 1989
Jackson's Dilemma, 1995
Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature, 1999
The Sovereignty of Good, 2001
Image Credit:
Dame Iris Murdoch. Wikipedia Commons
Resources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers, 2002
Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994
The Cambridge Literature in English, (New Edition), edited by Ian Ousby,Cambridge, 1993
(c) July 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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