O: The Black Prince (1973)

by 54yo Iris Murdoch

characters 830,123
words 150,768

chapters 64?

 

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

1454 copies, 109 editions

 

 

Carpaccio's Dream of Saint Ursula

 

🎬 P. Loxias

loxias = Apollo as ambiguous oracle

👨Bradley Pearson, 58yo retired taxman, author of three literary books

name coincidentally similar to VN's 1972 Hugh Person in Transparent Things?

💃 Christian Evansdale, Bradley's weathy widowed noxious ex (marriage lasted 5yrs)
🐻 Francis Marloe, Christian's broke brother, ex-medical
🛖 Patara, seaside cottage rental
📚Arnold Baffin, prolific popular novelist, Bradley's longtime friend/protégé
👩Rachel Baffin, his heavy housewife of 20+ years
👧Julian Baffin, their 20yo daughter
👜Priscilla Pearson Saxe, Bradley's materialistic 52yo sister
👞Roger Saxe, her successful husband
🤰 Marigold, Roger's 30yo pregnant mistress
👦 Oscar Belling, Julian's ex

(paragraph count)
O01(3): Editor's Foreword 🎬

O02(15): Bradley Pearson's Foreword

O03(0): Now follows Bradley Pearson's Story

O04(88): Part One-- It might be most

O05(4): I pause here to say

O06(248): Arnold stared

homme moyen sensuel = man of average appetites

O07: It was now 👨(🐻)👧

O08: My dear Arnold

O09: At this point

O10: I opened the door

O11: Perhaps at this point

O12: My mother was very

O13: Marriage is a curious

O14: The next thing was

O15: I was drinking

O16: I was at Christian's

O17: In the end Rachel

O18: Now at last there

O19: One of the many

O20: "He cut down my magnolia

O21: It is customary

O22: That evening Priscilla

O23: "Where's Arnold?"

O24: Somehow or other

O25: "He knows you're

O26: As I now approach

O27: The following morning

O28: Part Two What it was

O29: The reader, especially

O30: Hartbourne asked after

O31: "Guess what I've got

O32: The division of one

O33: The restaurant at the top

O34: The next morning of course

O35: My dear Bradley

O36: Julian was holding

O37: I slept, I suppose

TIM = time

O38: "You don't quite

O39: I stood under

O40: When we try

O41: "What happened?"

O42: The door of the flat

O43: Part Three She had so much

O44: "Look, Bradley

O45: The absolute yearnng

O46: The next day the mist

O47: "What ages you've been

O48: Later on she was

O49: "What made you

O50: I was deeply asleep

O51: I awoke to a grey

O52: "Wait, Brad

O53: The world is perhaps

O54: Of course I felt

O55: I shall now advance

O56: "How are you feeling

O57: "Wake up, wake up

O58: I paid the taxi

O59: Postscript by Bradley

O60: Postscript by Christian

O61: Postscript by Francis

O62: Postscript by Rachel

O63: Postscript by Julian

O64: Editor's Postscript

N: An Accidental Man (1971)

 62 unnumbered chapters

characters 827,620

words 151,057

1115 copies, 79 editions 

[wikipedia]  [goodreads] [editions/covers]

Burne-Jones saint [N03]

☮️Ludwig Leferrier, American draft dodger

👸 Gracie Tisbourne

Sebastian Odmore, Gracie's old boyfriend

👦Ralph Odmore

Pitt’s Lodge, the Tisbournes' house in Kensington

Clara Ledgard Tisbourne, Gracie's mother

George 'Pinkie' Tisbourne, Gracie's father

👢Mitzi Ricardo 

📷 Owen Secombe-Hughes, Mitzi's boss, a photographer

Karen Arbuthnot

Charlotte Ledgard, sister of Clara

Alison Ledgard, mother of Charlotte and Clara

Villa, Alison's house in Chelsea

👱Patrick Tisbourne, Gracie’s younger brother

👳Garth Gibson Grey, Ludwig's best friend

☁ Austin Gibson Grey, 40s, Garth's father

👽Dorina, Austin's estranged wife, a charming schizophrenic

🧙 Matthew Gibson Grey, Austin's successful older brother

Mavis Argyll, Dorina's older sister

🏨Valmorana, hostel run by Mavis

🏊Betty, Austin's first wife, drowned

👧Henrietta Sayce

N01: Gracie Darling Will
N02: Recession. Yes, said
N03: Grace Leferrier. It
N04: Austin Gibson Grey
N05: I haven’t an
N06: My dear Ludwig 📮
N07: May I see
N08: Suddenly everything was
N09: Dorina shrieked. The
N10: One should do
N11: It must be
N12: Ludwig
N13: Where are those 🗫
N14: My dear George 📮
N15: Austin Gibson Grey
N16: The privet hedge
N17: Hong Kong must
N18: There is nothing
N19: Matthew held in
N20: Dearest Hester 📮
N21: The waste land
N22: Norman Monkley and
N23: I like flies
N24: Dorina sat surrounded
N25: During luncheon at
N26: Garth sat beside
N27: Mavis lay back
N28: You will read
N29: I went there
N30: A packet of
N31: My dear Oliver 📮
N32: ‘Austin’s here,’ said
N33: Norman Monkley looked
N34: Is that Mavis 🗫
N35: So you are
N36: I’ve brought your
N37: We might go
N38: Matthew, just back
N39: ‘I’m going to
N40: ‘Austin hasn’t been
N41: Dearest Char 📮
N42: Matthew and Dorina
N43: Dear Mitzi
N44: Meanwhile Austin had
N45: Dearest Hester 📮
N46: Charlotte opened her
N47: In these days
N48: So you talked
N49: Dorina returned to
N50: Oh do stop
N51: I must look
N52: Her funeral had
N53: Ludwig sat alone
N54: I should think
N55: It must have
N56: What about this
N57: May I fill
N58: My dear Ludwig 📮
N59: Gracie lay back
N60: ‘Pinkie —’, said Clara
N61: He never even
N62: Matthew was doing

M: A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970)

IM was 51yo, married 14yrs

44 chapters in two parts

characters 797,379
words 142,934

 IM spent 1965-1969 rereading the plays of Shakespeare

 

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers] [spanish] [intro]

 

Iris Murdoch Society · A Fairly Honourable Defeat Podcast

 

Hillman Minx (M22, Axel's)

 

kouros [M116]

 

🧙Julius King, academic biochemist, jewish
👴Rupert Foster, his former colleague, a senior civil servant writing a book on living morally
👵Hilda Foster, Rupert's wife of 20 years
🕺Simon Foster, Rupert's gay 29yo brother
🙋🏽‍♂️Axel Nilsson, Rupert's colleague and Simon's partner, serious 42yo
👧Morgan Browne, Tallis' wife, Julius's rejected lover and Hilda's sister
🐹Tallis Browne, Morgan's estranged husband
👱Peter Foster, Rupert and Hilda's c20yo son
👺Leonard Browne, Tallis's father

🦔 a hedgehog

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M111: 👴🙋🏽‍♂️👵🕺(🏊🌹🌹)👱👧(🐹)
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L: Bruno's Dream (1969)

 chapters: 32

characters: 515,905

words: 92,634

[wikipedia] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

xysticus face

Oxyptila face

Cape Triangular stamps

Albion press

👴Bruno Greensleave, 80yo+, spider-lover 🕷️, stamp collection worth £20K🖃

👰Janie, Bruno's wife, deceased

Maureen, his former mistress

🧹Adelaide de Crecy, his servant (Proust's Odette Swann was born a de Crécy)

🤡 Danby Odell, 'contingent' son-in-law

👨‍⚕️Nigel Boase, Adelaide's cousin, Bruno's 'nurse'

🎨Will Boase, Nigel's fraternal twin, aspiring artist/photographer

Gwen Odell, Bruno's daughter, deceased, married Danby, studied Frege

〽️Miles Greensleave, Bruno's estranged 35yo son, aspiring poet, Kempsford Gardens

🗽Parvati, Miles' deceased wife (married when both were 22yo)

💃Diana Watkin Greensleave, 28yo wife of Miles

👧 Lisa Watkin, Diana's younger sister, communist

Gater and Greensleave, Bruno's printing works

George Greensleave, Bruno's deceased father

🤪Auntie, Nigel and Will's senile patron

Gaskin, printer

L01: 👴💤

gin and French = cocktail
Vladimir Pook ?= Nabokov (butterflies) pook = rule? 

soma sema = Latin: body equals tomb

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clerihew = AABB
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porlocking [def]
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L13: 〽️🤡👴🗪👰🗽💥
L14: 🤡💃👧💐👴👺🤝
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Albion press
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K: The Nice and the Good (1968)

chapters:40

characters: 667,520
words: 120,501

[wikipedia] [foster] [goodreads] [editions/covers]

 review w/spoilers: [van norden]

 

Bronzini

 

 

Willie Kost = Franz Steiner?

 

👴Octavian Gray, senior civil servant

👵Kate Gray, his wife (based on Philippa Foot??)

👧Barbara Gray, their 14yo daughter, flautist

🐈Montrose, her cocoa-colored tabby cat

Trescombe House

Mary Clothier, widow

👦Pierce Clothier, her 14yo son

Paula Biranne, divorced

👬Henrietta and Edward Biranne, 9yo twins

🤡Theo Gray, Octavian's older brother

🐩Mingo, grey poodle-like dog 🐏 sheeplike

🧙Willy Kost, classical scholar and concentration camp survivor

John Ducane, legal advisor to Octavian's dept

Jessica Bird, a young art teacher with whom he has had an affair

Platonic relationship with Octavian's wife Kate.

🔫suicide of Joseph Radeechy

Richard Biranne, ex-husband of Paula Biranne

Peter McGrath

George Droysen, formerly a journalist and now a young Principal in the department

 

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Slow movement of the twelfth quartet, opus 127
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Bronzini
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Picasso "Faun flautist"