Sarahfuller: Costume design illustrations for 'The Unicorn' (novel by Iris Murdoch)

Sarahfuller: Costume design illustrations for 'The Unicorn' (novel by Iris Murdoch)

Единорог / The Unicorn (1963) Айрис Мёрдок

Айрис Мёрдок (англ. Jean Iris Murdoch; 15 июля 1919, Дублин — 8 февраля 1999, Оксфорд) — английская писательница и философ. Лауреат Букеровской премии, лидер по числу попаданий в шорт-лист Букера (шесть раз)^[1].
Родилась в англо-ирландской семье. Изучала классическую филологию в Оксфордском университете (1938—1942) и философию — в Кембриджском (1947—1948). Преподавала философию в Оксфорде. Там же в 1956 вышла замуж за Джона Бейли^[2], профессора английской литературы, писателя и художественного критика, с которым прожила около 40 лет. Детей у писательницы не было.
Мёрдок написала 26 романов и является автором философских и драматических произведений. Дебютом Мёрдок в литературе стал роман 1954 года «Под сетью». В 1987 году ей было присуждено звание Дамы Командора ордена Британской империи. В 1995 году Айрис Мердок пишет свой последний роман «Дилемма Джексона», который был принят критиками довольно холодно. Последние годы жизни писательница боролась с болезнью Альцгеймера^[3]. Айрис Мёрдок умерла 8 февраля 1999 года в доме престарелых^[4].


Marian Taylor
 Gaze Castle
 Mrs. Hannah Crean-Smith
her husband, Peter Crean-Smith, a violent, sadistic man, bi-sexual in his habits

The demonic figure, Gerald Scottow, is a seemingly gentle, but large, powerful, handsome country man
Violent and Jamesie Evercreach
 Effingham Cooper , Effie

The family name, “Lejour,”
Max, the father, is a philosopher writing a book on Plato.
Alice, his daughter, is a bustling, warm-hearted biologist who loves unrequited both the virginal Denis and the smitten Effie.
Philip, known as Pip, a journalist-poet-fisherman, provides the overt connection, for he was seven years ago Hannah’s lover.
 As “Riders,” this community is as static in their position as Gaze.
A characteristic stance of Pip poised with binoculars focused on Gaze symbolizes with economy the relationship between the two houses.

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Author: Iris Murdoch

First Published: 1963

Type of Work: Gothic romance

Time of Work: c. 1963

Setting: A remote region in West Ireland

Characters: Marian Taylor, Hannah Crean-Smith, Gerald Scottow, Jamesie Evercreech, Violet Evercreech, Denis Nolan, Philip “Pip” Lejour, Alice Lejour, Max Lejour, Effingham Cooper

Genres: Long fiction, Gothic fiction, Novel

Subjects: Values, 1960's, Suffering, Philosophy or philosophers, Prisoners, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, Violence, Death or dying, Mysteries, Ireland or Irish people, Tutors or tutoring

Locales: Europe, Ireland

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Comments

1. October 23, 2012 12:42 AM EDT
   I find The Unicorn so difficult to read simply because of all these complex and really quite vague references to beautiful suffering and martyrdom. That Hannah is a puzzle is of course one of the things that drives the book and as such the Gothic setting is entirely appropriate to fit around her. But it's so frustrating when people in the book talk about the virtue in suffering because as a modern and (I like to think) feminist woman I don't believe in this kind of suffering, and I don't think that any woman with an ounce of sense really does either. Having said that so many of Murdoch's characters do seem to stand by the idea that this type of self-effacement and deliberate seeking of punishment is a good way to live and the people around them seem also to think that this is something to admire and even aspire to. I choose to see it (from my own point of view) as a patriarchal enforcement of women's suppressed role in society (they are the one's who HAVE to suffer) but of course this is probably not Murdoch's intended point. Critics often frustrate me as well because they never seem to come down on one side or another regarding Hannah. Frank Baldanza wrote an essay in the 1960s or thereabouts where he talks about her name as an anagram of "Christ Mean", but at the same time calls her a "deranged lady". There is no answer to her it seems, she's impossible and insolvable.
   - Michelle Austin