Iris Murdoch: A Life

Part 1 "A Kind of Moral Psychology": introductory - "existentialist and mystic"; "Under the Net" and the redemption of particulars; "Against Gravity" - the early novels, "An Accidental Man"; Eros in "A Severed Head", "Bruno's Dream". Part 2 "Open and Closed": the sublime in "The Bell" and "The Unicorn"; self-sufficiency in "The Time of the Angels", "The Nice and the Good". Part 3 "The closest compression of form with the widest expansion of meaning": "A Fairly Honourable Defeat"; "The Black Prince"; "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine", "Henry and Cato"; "The Sea, The Sea"; conclusion - "Nuns and Soldiers", "The Philosopher's Pupil"; postscript - "The Good Apprentice" and "The Book and the Brotherhood".