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Iris Murdoch

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Philosophy & Literature - Iris Murdoch & Bryan Magee (1977)
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Iris Murdoch


Born
in Dublin, Ireland
July 15, 1919

Died
February 08, 1999

Genre
Fiction, Philosophy

Influences
Jean-Paul Sartre, William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Beckett, S ...more


Dame Jean Iris Murdoch

Irish-born British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.

"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.85 · 107,927 ratings · 11,761 reviews · 127 distinct works • Similar authors
The Sea, the Sea
3.97 avg rating — 26,879 ratings — published 1978 — 5 editions
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Under the Net
3.78 avg rating — 16,819 ratings — published 1954 — 104 editions
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The Bell
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3.93 avg rating — 10,975 ratings — published 1958 — 104 editions
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The Black Prince
3.96 avg rating — 7,306 ratings — published 1973 — 104 editions
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A Severed Head
3.75 avg rating — 7,134 ratings — published 1961 — 103 editions
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The Unicorn
3.65 avg rating — 3,805 ratings — published 1963 — 67 editions
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A Fairly Honourable Defeat
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3.96 avg rating — 2,719 ratings — published 1970 — 40 editions
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The Nice and the Good
3.86 avg rating — 2,738 ratings — published 1968 — 2 editions
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The Italian Girl
3.43 avg rating — 2,762 ratings — published 1964 — 77 editions
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The Sandcastle
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3.83 avg rating — 2,306 ratings — published 1957 — 88 editions
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Quotes by Iris Murdoch  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.”
― Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature
tags: love, realization
1835 likes
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“I think being a woman is like being Irish... Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the time.”
― Iris Murdoch
tags: feminism, ireland, irish, women
610 likes
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“I hate solitude, but I'm afraid of intimacy. The substance of my life is a private conversation with myself which to turn into a dialogue would be equivalent to self-destruction. The company which I need is the company which a pub or a cafe will provide. I have never wanted a communion of souls. It's already hard enough to tell the truth to oneself.”
― Iris Murdoch, Under the Net
tags: intimacy, solitude
341 likes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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