A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home to an enclosed order of nuns. A new bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. Dora Greenfield, erring wife, returns to her husband. Michael Mead, lead...
Can we reject the literal truth of the Gospels, yet still retain a Christian morality? Can we defence any moral values against the constant enroachments of technology? Indeed, are we in danger of losing most of the qualities which make us truly human?...
A comedy of errors, this title portrays the mischief wrought by Julius, a cynical intellectual who decides to demonstrate through a Machiavellian experiment how easily loving couples, caring friends, and devoted siblings can betray their loyalties.
Hilary Burde, saved by education from a delinquent childhood, cheated out of Oxford by a tragic love tangle, cherishes his obsessive guilt and disappointment in a dull, orderly civil service job. When the man whom he has harmed and betrayed reappears as...
Carel Fisher is a priest who is experiencing doubt and beginning to feel hate for God. The novel explores the forces of good and evil, and studies a religious man transferring his faith from one force to the other.
Iris Murdoch once observed: âphilosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obviousâ. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything - even...
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...
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and...
When Marian Taylor takes the post of governess at Gaze castle, remote house on a beautiful but desolate coast, she finds herself confronted with many strange mysteries. What kind of crime or catastrophe in the past still keeps the house under a brooding...
Bruno dying obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation lies at the center of an intricate spiderâs web of relationships and passions: Brunoâs estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby Brunoâ...
Annette runs away from her finishing school but learns more than she bargained for in the real world beyond; the fierce and melacholy Rosa is torn between two Polish brothers; Peter is obsessed by an indecipherable ancient script. This is a story of a...
In the healing waters of Ennistone the townspeople seek health and regeneration, righteousness and ritual cleansing. To this town of subterranean inspiration the Philosopher returns. And there he exerts an almost magical influence, especially over George...
When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on...
Full of suspense, humor, and symbolism, this magnificently crafted and magical novel replays biblical and medieval themes in contemporary London. An attempt by the sharp, feral, and uncommonly intelligent Lucas Graffe to murder his sensual and charismatic...
Dame Iris Murdoch, who has written several works of philosophy as well as twenty-four distinguished novels, now crowns her philosophic quest with a book that asks many questions and reflects on the essential aspects of the great subject: moral philosophy....
Marian Taylor, who has come as a âcompanionâ to a lovely woman in a remote castle, becomes aware that her employer is a prisoner, not only of her obsessions, but of an unforgiving husband.
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, The Sea comes a story about revenge and reconciliation, and the difference between being nice and being good.