Iris Murdoch »

HILDA D. SPEAR is an Honorary Research Fellow of Dundee University.

An introduction to one of Britain's best-known writers, which guides the reader through the novels, tracing basic patterns which run throughout Murdoch's work and showing how the novels help to elucidate one another. This new edition takes into account certain details which have emerged following Murdoch's death in 1999 and is revised and updated throughout, incorporating the latest scholarship. It also features an examination of Murdoch's last published novel, Jackson's Dilemma.

Booknews

A brief guide to the progressive moral discourse of the 25 novels Murdoch produced between 1954 and 1993. Spear traces the basic patterns running through Murdoch's work and shows how the novels help elucidate each other. Murdoch's philosophical works are referred to in order to illustrate how the novelist uses the intricacy of her plots to reinforce the subtlety and anxiety of the human response to problems such as the nature of reality and of good and evil. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)