Iris Murdoch

A poignant portrait of a family's struggle for redemption The funeral of Edward's mother brings him home for the first time in years. Though his return rekindles his affection for his childhood home, it also triggers a resurgence of the family tensions that caused him to leave in the first place. As Edward becomes tangled in his family's web of corrosive secrets, his homecoming tips a precariously balanced dynamic into sudden chaos.   The Italian...

Edward Lannion is to marry the lovely Marian Fox. But on the eve of the wedding, Marian's note leaves everyone in a tizzy and full of questions: Where is Marian? And who is Jackson? In this intricately plotted novel, a mysterious, charismatic English butler derails the marriage of his master, a young aristocrat, and his fiancé, sending them both off on strange, dark, and amusing paths.

A respected Whitehall civil servant is asked to investigate the suicide of a colleague and begins to feel trapped by the after-effects of violence.

Bradley Pearson, an unsuccessful novelist in his late fifties, has finally left his dull office job as an Inspector of Taxes. Bradley hopes to retire to the country, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retirement. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquent brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations;...

Martin Lynch-Gibbon believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion ...

An Anglican priest who has lost all belief in God, withdraws to a rectory in London where he lives the life of a recluse intent on destroying the spirit of those around him.

Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues is Murdoch's philosophical masterpiece featuring fictionalized discussions between the intellectual giants of the classical world, including Socrates and Plato. Described by Acastos, a friend of Plato's, the riveting debates center on the nature of goodness and faith, told through the voices of history's most celebrated thinkers.   Witty and profound, these debates apply the timeless wisdom of history's renowned philosophers...

The Flight from the Enchanter: In 1950s London, when the enigmatic and charismatic businessman Mischa Fox turns his entrepreneurial gaze on a small feminist magazine. His intoxicating influence begins to affect the lives of those involved: the fragile editor, Hunter; his sister, Rosa, who splits her time and affections between her brother and two other men; innocent Annette, whose journey from school to the real world ends up being more fraught than...