The Novels of Iris Murdoch Volume One

Three sharply observed novels from the "prodigiously inventive" Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Sea, The Sea (The New York Times).

 


"One of the most significant novelists of her generation" (The Guardian) and a "consummate storyteller" (The Independent), British author Iris Murdoch grappled with questions of morality as well as the nature of love in novels that are every bit as entertaining as they are thought provoking. Over the span of her career, she was the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the Whitbread Literary Award, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.


 

Henry and Cato: Henry Marshalson and Cato Forbes were inseparable childhood friends. But their lives took different paths. Henry went to the United States to teach art history. Cato became a priest. When Henry's brother dies, leaving him sole heir to his family's vast estate, he returns to England, and the two friends reconnect. As Henry struggles to come to terms with his personal passions and family obligations, Cato fights against his religious doubts and darker urges. Soon, both men find themselves entwined in a deadly intrigue that could ruin not only their lives but also the lives of those they hold dear.


 


"Murdoch's finest novel." —Joyce Carol Oates


 

The Italian Girl: After a long absence, Edmund Narraway has returned to his childhood home to attend his mother's funeral. The visit rekindles feelings of affection and nostalgia, but also triggers a resurgence of the tensions that caused him to leave in the first place. As Edmund once again becomes entangled in his family's web of corrosive secrets, his homecoming tips a precariously balanced dynamic into sudden chaos.


 


"[An] inbred story of modern life . . . a ritual of innocence and corruption . . . accomplished with many dark fancies, sudden surprises and arcane implications." —Kirkus Reviews

 

The Philosopher's Pupil: The quiet English town of Ennistone is shaken up when George McCaffrey's car plunges into the cold waters of a canal, carrying with it his wife—and when the village's most celebrated son, famed philosopher John Robert Rozanov, returns, upending the lives of everyone with whom he comes in contact, in this New York Times Notable Book.


 


"The most daring and original of all her novels." —A. N. Wilson