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The Iris Murdoch Review
Edition 14, 2023
This issue of the Iris Murdoch Review contains a wide-ranging collection of essays, reviews and reports variously connected by specific features. We begin with celebrations of Murdoch at home and abroad, then move on to America, art, philosophy and literature – specifically by women writers: a set of topics that encapsulates Murdoch’s life of working, writing and travelling.
Latest from the blog
Re-reading early Murdoch: The Unicorn
17 April 2024The Unicorn is immediately a kind of frame narrative: a train story itself, which begins with an arrival at a remote railway station and ends with our two narrative guides departing ‘as the express carried them away across the central plain’, leaving behind the dramatic story of Hannah Crean-Smith, the unicorn of the novel’s title.
Welcome to the Iris Murdoch Society Website. The society exists to champion the work, and celebrate the life, of the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch: one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Twentieth Century.
Murdoch's work spans fiction (26 novels), philosophy, plays, poetry and thousands of letters. All of her work is still in print, and you can find recent books about her life and work in our online shop.
The Society is for all readers and enthusiasts with hundreds of members from accross the world. We organise regular events in the UK, and promote events worldwide. We organise a bienniel international conference alongside a bienniel Summer School.
Become a member
Join the Iris Murdoch Society to:
- Receive the Iris Murdoch Review on publication
- Keep up to date with scholarship, new publications, symposia and other information
- Be entitled to reduced rates for the biennial Iris Murdoch Conferences at Chichester University
Podcast
Events
Blog
Re-reading early Murdoch: The Unicorn
17 April 2024The Unicorn is immediately a kind of frame narrative: a train story itself, which begins with an arrival at a remote railway station and ends with our two narrative guides departing ‘as the express carried them away across the central plain’, leaving behind the dramatic story of Hannah Crean-Smith, the unicorn of the novel’s title.
Re-reading early Murdoch: Flight from the Enchanter
10 February 2024As you re-read Flight from the Enchanter, there are moments when you can’t stop yourself from checking its original date of publication. How could this have been written 70 years ago? A press baron trying to take over a small publication, for example? Or the opening paragraph of Chapter 25, which recounts parliamentary questions about migrants and hostile news coverage the following day? Weren’t they just last week?
CfP: Eleventh International Iris Murdoch Conference
4 January 2024The Eleventh International Conference on Iris Murdoch studies will take place at the University of Chichester in 2024. The conference will showcase ongoing, and published, Murdoch scholarship with a particular focus on Aspirations and Inspirations.