Iris Murdoch

The Sea, The Sea is the Booker Prize-winning masterpiece from one of the twentieth century's most important and entertaining writers. Charles Arrowby has determined to spend the rest of his days in hermit-like contemplation. He buys a mysteriously damp house on the coast, far from the heady world of the theatre where he made his name, and there he swims...

Newly discovered, an intimate collection of poems that shine a light on Iris Murdoch's own life and loves. Poems from an Attic is a definitive collection of poems by the major twentieth-century novelist and philosopher, newly discovered in the attic of Murdoch's former home. While she is pre-eminent as one of the twentieth century's great novelists and philosophers, Murdoch's life...

Sartre is Iris Murdoch's unique study of one of the 20th century's foremost thinkers. Sartre's powerful political passions were united with a memorable literary gift, placing him foremost among the novelists, as well as the philosophers, of our time. Iris Murdoch's pioneering study analyses and evaluates the different strands of Sartre's rich and complex oeuvre. Combining the objectivity of the...

Montague Small, an obsessive writer of detective thrillers, mourns his lately dead wife, who may or may not have been unfaithful to him. His attempts at meditation are a failure. He detests his fictional detective. His interest in his neighbour's difficulties and his neighbour's wife appear to be his only consolations after all. The neighbour, Blaise Gavender, is an amateur...

Bruno's Dream centres around Bruno, who is dying, obsessed with spiders, and preoccupied with death and reconciliation. At the heart of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions, Bruno's life intertwines with those around him. Bruno's estranged and grieving son, Miles, and Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, find themselves drawn into the mix. Danby consoles himself with Adelaide, the maid,...

Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything - even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's...

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch, a Booker Prize-winning novel, is now republished as part of the Vintage Classics Murdoch Series. This series features six gorgeous editions of her best, funniest, and most subversive novels, published to mark her centenary. "I saw a monster rising from the waves." Charles Arrowby has determined to spend the rest of his days...

An Unofficial Rose offers a complex Shakespearean comedy of intertwined relationships, as nine closely linked characters search for love. After his wife's death, Hugh contemplates returning to his former mistress. His son, Randall, longs to abandon his shapeless marriage for a perfect partner. Randall's young daughter, Miranda, is adored by her Australian cousin Penn, but has attachments elsewhere. Her mother...

A novel that offers uplifting lessons in love, now republished as part of the Vintage Classics Murdoch Series—six gorgeous editions of her best, funniest, and most subversive novels published to mark her centenary. The Bell invites you to Imber Court, a quiet haven for lost souls, a utopia for those who can neither live in the world nor out of...

A Fairly Honourable Defeat by Iris Murdoch is described as by A. S. Byatt as 'The most important novelist writing in my time'. Everyone is thinking about Julius King. For comfortable, long-married Hilda and Rupert, he is a mystery. For Morgan, Hilda's tormented sister, he is an obsession. For Morgan's abandoned husband, Tallis, he is the source of ruin. For...

Iris Murdoch's comic tale of moral dilemmas - now republished as part of the Vintage Classics Murdoch Series - six gorgeous editions of her best, funniest, and most subversive novels published to mark her centenary. 'I feel there are demons around.' Everyone is thinking about Julius King. For comfortable, long-married Hilda and Rupert, he is a mystery. For Morgan, Hilda's...

An Accidental Man by Iris Murdoch is lauded by Raymond Mortimer as written by "the most remarkable" novelist to emerge since the war. This is the story of the comic, relentless struggle for survival of Austin Gibson Grey, the accidental man. Austin thrives through the destruction of others. In Austin's case, the others include his successful elder brother, Matthew, and...

A complicated and comic story of dangerous love affairs. Martin believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him...