A S Byatt
Her Philosophical Essays Changed Everything
Existentials and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature
By Iris Murdoch (edited by Peter Conradi)
(Chatto & Windus 546pp £20
Iris Murdoch has said in the past that her philosophy is quite separate from her novels. This is perhaps because she has a suspicion of the 'novel of ideas', and believes that the novel should be grounded in contingency, in the 'thinginess' of which she believed Sartre had not enough. Her novels are nevertheless peopled with philosophers, with people to whom serious thought matters, and who are changed by it. It is equally clear that one of her central concerns as a philosopher is art in general, and the novel in particular as a way of thinking, of understanding. When I first met her work, as a young student in the arid days of the 'angry young men', I was puzzled and entranced by a sense that there was more there, formally and conceptually, than I could account for. I wrote a book on her work, to try to
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk