The chief requirement of the good life... is to live without any image of oneself.
The Bell (2001), ch. 9, p. 119. (1958)
We can only learn to love by loving.
The Bell (2001), ch. 19, p. 219.
Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.
"The Sublime and the Good", in the Chicago Review, Vol. 13 (1959) p. 51.
Only lies and evil come from letting people off.
A Severed Head (1976) p. 61. (1961)
There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.
A Severed Head (1976) p. 181
I think being a woman is like being Irish... Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.
The Red and the Green|The Red and the Green (1965), ch. 2, p. 30.
Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.
The Nice and the Good (1968), ch. 14, p. 127.
Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. To be damned is for one's ordinary everyday mode of consciousness to be unremitting agonising preoccupation with self.
The Nice and the Good, ch. 22.
People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.
A Fairly Honourable Defeat|A Fairly Honourable Defeat (2001) p. 170. (1970)
Almost anything that consoles us is a fake.
The Sovereignty of Good (1970) p. 59.
Dame Iris Murdoch DBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an English author and philosopher, best known for her novels about sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the
unconsciousThe unconscious mind is a term invented by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Ser Christopher Riegel and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
. Her first published novel,
Under the NetUnder the Net was the first novel of Iris Murdoch, published in 1954. Set in London, it is the story of a struggling young writer, Jake Donaghue. Its mixture of the philosophical and the picaresque has made it one of Murdoch's most popular....
, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American
Modern LibraryThe Modern Library is a publishing company. It is currently a division of Random House publishers, and it was founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. It was bought in 1925 by Bennett Cerf...
as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1987, she was made a Dame Commander of the
Order of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
Biography
Jean Iris Murdoch was born at 59 Blessington Street,
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
on 15 July 1919. Her father, Wills John Hughes Murdoch, came from a mainly Presbyterian sheep farming family from
HillhallHillhall is a non-nucleated village in County Down, Northern Ireland, near Lisburn. In the 2001 Census it had a population of about one hundred people. It lies in the Lagan Valley Regional Park and the Lisburn City Council area...
,
County DownCounty Down is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Ulster and is part of Northern Ireland....
, and her mother, Irene Alice Richardson, who had trained as a singer until Iris was born, was from a
middle classThe middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
,
Church of IrelandThe Church of Ireland is a Christian church, an autonomous province of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland, and the largest non-Roman Catholic religious body on the island...
(Anglican) family from
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
. When Iris was very young, her parents moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, where her father worked in the Civil Service.
She was educated in progressive schools, first at the Froebel Demonstration School, and then as a boarder at the
Badminton SchoolBadminton School is an independent, boarding and day school for girls aged 4 to 18 years situated in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, England. The school consistently performs well in the government's league tables, particularly at A level...
in
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London, and east of Cardiff.With an estimated population of 416,400 for the unitary authority in mid-2007, and a surrounding urban area with an estimated 561,500 residents, it is England's sixth, and...
in 1932. She went on to read
classicsClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity...
,
ancient historyAncient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history in the Old World until the Early Middle Ages in Europe and the Qin Dynasty in China....
, and philosophy at
Somerville College, OxfordSomerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...
, and philosophy as a postgraduate at
Newnham College, CambridgeNewnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College.-History:...
, where she attended a number of
Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language....
's lectures. In 1948, she became a fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, having earlier (1938) joined the
Communist Party of Great BritainThe Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom, though it never became a mass party like the communist parties of France and Italy...
.
She wrote her first novel,
Under the Net in 1954, having previously published essays on philosophy, including the first study in English of
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
. It was at
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
in 1956 that she met and married
John BayleyProfessor John Bayley CBE, FBA, FRSL is a British literary critic and writer.-Biography:...
, a professor of English literature and also a novelist. She went on to produce 25 more novels and other works of philosophy and drama until 1995, when she began to suffer the early effects of
Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease , also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was...
, the symptoms of which she at first attributed to
writer's blockWriter's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand...
.
Death
She died, aged 79, in 1999 and her ashes were scattered in the garden at the Oxford Crematorium. She had no children.
Media
She was portrayed by
Kate WinsletKate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. Winslet made her film debut starring in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures...
and
Judi DenchDame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English actress.Originally trained as a set designer, Dench began her acting career in the mid 1950s in amateur productions, and made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company...
in
Richard EyreSir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre and television.-Biography:He was Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972...
's film,
IrisIris is a 2001 biographical film that tells the story of Irish novelist Iris Murdoch and her relationship with John Bayley. The film contrasts the start of their relationship, when Murdoch was an outgoing, dominant individual as compared to her timid and scholarly partner Bayley , and their later...
(2001), based on Bayley's memories of his wife as she developed Alzheimer's disease. Parts of the movie were filmed at
SouthwoldSouthwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of Suffolk, East Anglia, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
in
SuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, one of Murdoch's favourite places to holiday.
Writings
She was strongly influenced by philosophers like
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
,
FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
,
Simone WeilSimone Weil , was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.-Biography:...
and
SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
, and by the 19th century English and Russian novelists, especially
Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, known for...
, as well as
Marcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, essayist, and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu , a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to...
and
ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. She also met and held discussions with philosopher
Jiddu KrishnamurtiJiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
. Her novels often include upper middle class intellectual males caught in moral dilemmas, gay characters, Anglo-Catholics with crises of faith, empathetic pets, curiously "knowing" children and sometimes a powerful and almost
demonIn religion, folklore, and mythology a demon is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit. In Christian terms demons are generally understood as fallen angels, formerly of God. A demon is frequently depicted as a force that may be conjured and insecurely controlled...
ic male "enchanter" who imposes his will on the other characters — a type of man Murdoch is said to have modeled on her lover, the
NobelThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
laureate,
Elias CanettiElias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born novelist and non-fiction writer of Sephardi Jewish ancestry who wrote in German. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981.-Life:...
.
Although she wrote primarily in a realistic manner, on occasion Murdoch would introduce
ambiguityAmbiguity is the property of being ambiguous, where a word, term, notation, sign, symbol, phrase, sentence, or any other form used for communication, is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way. Ambiguity is different from vagueness, which arises when the boundaries of meaning...
into her work through a sometimes misleading use of
symbolismSymbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Symbolism is sometimes used to refer specifically to totemic symbols that stand on their own, as opposed to linguistic symbols....
, and by mixing elements of
fantasyFantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place on fictional planes or planets where magic is common...
within her precisely described scenes.
The Unicorn (1963) can be read as a sophisticated
GothicGothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an...
romanceAs a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about the marvelous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight errant,...
, or as a novel with Gothic trappings, or perhaps as a parody of the Gothic mode of writing.
The Black PrinceThe Black Prince is Iris Murdoch's 15th novel, first published in 1973. The name of the novel alludes mainly to Hamlet.-Plot summary:The Black Prince is remarkable for the structure of its narrative, consisting of a central story bookended by forewords and post-scripts by characters within it...
(1973), for which Murdoch won the
James Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
, is a study of
erotic obsessionHypersexuality is the desire to engage in human sexual behavior at a level high enough to be considered clinically significant.-Concept:The concept of hypersexuality replaces the older concepts of nymphomania and satyriasis...
, and the text becomes more complicated, suggesting multiple interpretations, when subordinate characters contradict the narrator and the mysterious "editor" of the book in a series of afterwords.
Murdoch was awarded the
Booker PrizeThe Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe...
in 1978 for
The Sea, the SeaThe Sea, the Sea is the 19th novel by Iris Murdoch. It won the Booker Prize in 1978.-Plot summary:The Sea, the Sea is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs...
, a finely detailed novel about the power of
loveLove is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction...
and loss, featuring a retired stage director who is overwhelmed by
jealousyJealousy is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, such as a relationship, friendship, or love. Jealousy often consists of a combination of emotions such as anger, sadness,...
when he meets his erstwhile lover after several decades apart.
Several of her works have been adapted for the screen, including the British television series of her novels
An Unofficial Rose and
The Bell.
J. B. PriestleyJohn Boynton Priestley, OM was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster.-Early years:Priestley was born in what he described as an "ultra-respectable" suburb of Bradford...
dramatized her 1961 novel,
A Severed HeadA Severed Head is a satirical, sometimes farcical 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch.Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilized and educated people. Set in and around London, it depicts a power struggle between grown-up middle class people who are lucky to be free of...
, which starred
Ian HolmSir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles, including the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the first and third films of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire, Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element and the...
and
Richard AttenboroughRichard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE is an English actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes...
.
Controversial biography
A controversial account of Murdoch's life was given by the British writer A.N. Wilson in his 2003 book
Iris Murdoch as I Knew Her. The work was described by
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
as "mischievously revelatory" and "quite spectacularly rude," and labelled by Wilson himself as an "anti-biography". Though he was careful to stress his current and past affection for his subject, Wilson did not flinch from writing of her disloyalty and
promiscuityIn human sexual behavior, promiscuity denotes sex with relatively many partners. In human cultures where polygamy is accepted, it is distinguished from promiscuity.Promiscuity is common in many animal species...
. He observed that she "thrived on acts of betrayal", was cruel, and was "prepared to go to bed with almost anyone" (Wilson 2003).
Further reading
- Bayley, J. Elegy for Iris, 1999
- _________. Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch, 1998 Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London 1998 ISBN 0 7156 2848 8
- _________. Iris and Her Friends, 1999
- Laverty, Megan. Iris Murdoch's Ethics: A Consideration of Her Romantic Vision, 2007 ISBN-10: 0826485359.
External links