F: An Unofficial Rose (1962)

chapters: 36

chars: 611,228
words: 110,011

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

To Margaret Hubbard

"Ann is the unofficial rose... she's the formless object" [youtube]

Romney Marsh

Redoute

🖼️ Tintoretto

🌹 Hugh Peronett (florist) Grayhallock, drives Standard Vanguard

💀 Fanny Peronett (his rich wife of 40+ years, deceased)

🐈 Hatfield, her big grey tabby cat

👊 Randall Peronett, created rose nursery, drivesVauxxhall

👩 Ann Meecham Peronett

👻 Stephen Peronett, deceased (polio)

👧 Miranda Peronett, 14yo? redhead, wild hedgehogs

👦 Penn Graham, 15yo Australian

Sarah Graham

Jimmie Graham

Douglas Swann, rector from Kent, w/pony

Clare Swann, his handsome wife

Humphrey Finch, pederast, Seton Blaise

Mildred Finch

Beryl Finch

Colonel Felix Meecham, Ann's handsome brother, very dark blue Mercedes, TE Lawrence?

Emma Sands, Notting Hill Gate, never married, successful detective writer

💃 Lindsay Rimmer

Nancy Bowshott, the head gardener's wife

Marie-Laure Auboyer

nameless?: Fanny's peevish architect brother who inherited the pictures

Jocelyn, based on IM?

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E: A Severed Head (1961)

30 chapters

chars: 400,503
words: 73,642

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers] [masterplots]

successful play, unsuccessful movie

 

 

 

 

"My face, I might add, is the long pale rather heavy old-fashioned face that all the Lynch-Gibbons have, which is a cross between the philosopher Hume and the actor Garrick"

Hume/ Garrick

characters:

🍷 Martin Lynch-Gibbon*

🗽 Antonia Lynch-Gibbon

Alexander Lynch-Gibbon (Martin's brother)

Rosemary Michelis (Martin's sister)

💃 Georgie Hands*

👳 Palmer Anderson

👺 Honor Klein (Palmer's half-sister)

*names recycled from abandoned 1958 novel 'Jerusalem'

🔪 sword

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D: The Bell (1958)

originally titled 'The Great Bell'

chars:636,132

words: 114,835

chapters: 26

 

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

'The Bell was very well received. In the first year it sold over 30,000 copies, which was far more than any of her novels had ever sold before.' [cite]

based in part on Anglo-Benedictine Malling Abbey in Kent and its Abbess, Dame Magdalene Mary
Euan-Smith

Iris Murdoch Society · The Bell Podcast

animals: Murphy (brown terrier dog)

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C: The Sandcastle (1957)

chapters: 20

chars: 623,639
words: 113,590

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

animals: Liffey (golden retriever, deceased)

(IM married JB, August 1956)

Rileys (IM's own car):

characters:

Bill Mor
Nan Mor (Mor's wife)
🧙‍♀️ Felicity Mor (Mor's daughter)
Donald Mor (Mor's son)
🎨 Rain Carter
Demoyte (former headmaster)

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B: The Flight from the Enchanter (1956)

first draft: spring 1953 (33yo)

final draft: Feb 1955 (35yo)

[ebooks] [cheap used]

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

chars: 593,414

words: 106,547

chapters: 30

wizard: 🧙Mischa Fox

Elias Canetti

bust by Grinling Gibbons c1700

characters:

🧙 Mischa Fox
Rosa Keepe
Hunter Keepe
👧 Annette Cockeyne
Peter Saward
John Rainborough
Calvin Blick

Nina

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A: Under the Net (1954)

 "a pastiche of Joyce-Stephens-Beckett" --IM

[ebooks]

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers] [info]

chars: 531,105

words: 99,428

chapters: 20

Iris Murdoch Society · Under the Net Podcast

influences:

Queneau's Pierrot [ebook]

Beckett's Murphy [ebook]

title refers to Wittgenstein [ebook] [ditto] [ditto] [ditto]

LW is referring to 'halftone' printing process (not, eg, tennis)

alternate titles:

Still Waters

Let Down Your Nets

The Looker-On

Dialogue of One

The Song and the Words

The Last Word

The Signs Among Us

That's What I Said

The Active Voice

Time's Fool

philosophy:

necessary/contingent (Sartre)

places:

Earls Court road [Earth]

wizard:

Hugo Belfounder (based on Yorick Smythies?)

Laughing Cavalier [essay]

animals:

Mister Mars (Alsation dog)

Maggie (tabby cat)

motifs:

mime

judo

lockpicking

swimming

dog

characters:

👁James Donaghue (Jake), a writer and translator in his early thirties
🥔Peter O'Finney (Finn), a distant cousin
⌨️Magdalen (Madge), a typist living on Earls Court Road [surname Casement unattested?]
🏇Samuel Starfield (Sammy), a wealthy bookmaker
🐈Mrs Tinckham, a chain-smoking, cat-loving shopkeeper near Charlotte Street
🔨Dave Gellman, a Jewish anti-Metaphysical philosopher, living on Goldhawk Road
Lefty Todd, leader of the New Independent Socialist Party
🎤Anna Quentin, a singer
💃Sadie Quentin, a film star
💥Hugo Belfounder, a fireworks manufacturer and film magnate
Ward Matron; Sister Piddingham; Stitch, a hospital porter
🐕 Mister Mars, a 14-year-old Alsatian, the star of many popular animal movies
📚Jean-Pierre Breteuil, a French writer whose novels include:
 Le Rossignol de Bois ("The Wooden Nightingale")
 Les Pierres de l'Amour ("Stones of Love")
 Nous les Vainqueurs ("We the Victors")
💰 Homer K. Pringsheim (H.K.), an American film magnate

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