[lit-ideas] Re: The Book ant eh Brotherhood

  • From: Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: epostboxx@xxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2021 07:04:56 -0800

/A Fairly Honourable Defeat /is listed in the Wikipedia article, just overlooked in my email note. Wikipedia doesn't have this novel listed among her best (assuming the interpretation from my previous note).   I looked for a review and found https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/specials/murdoch-defeat.html I can see why it might not be considered one of her best, but it certainly seems a challenging project.

Taking Mr Rabinovitz* review, and adding something I read elsewhere (can't remember where) wherein Murdoch stated that she outlined her novels elaborately before she began, and that she didn't expect the the aid of her Muse until she began the actual writing, then Mr Rabinovitz may be justified in his suggestion that Murdoch is taking up the Job theme in his novel.  This may not be one I'll want to tackle however.

/*Mr. Rabinovitz teaches English at Columbia and is the author of "The Reaction Against Experiment in the English Novel, 1950-1960" and "Iris Murdoch."/

Lawrence



On 2/19/2021 1:56 AM, epostboxx@xxxxxxxx wrote:

On 18. Feb 2021, at 16:24, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Does any Iris Murdoch reader believe that any of her other novels are as good 
as the ones Wikipedia lists above?
A FAIRLY HONOURABLE DEFEAT is not on the list. It was the first of hers that I 
read that literally helped me shape my 'persona' (as much as such a thing is 
possible - about which more later).

Chris Bruce,
feeling he's being drawn out from
behind the mask [persona], in
Kiel Germany


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