Review: Iris Murdoch

Author(s): Frank Baldanza

Review by: Frank Baldanza
Source: Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Summer, 1967), pp. 454-458

Published by: University of Wisconsin Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1207201
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IRIS MURDOCH*

Afterbeinginitiallyconfusedwith the AngryYoung Men, Iris

Murdochhas established a reputation as an eccentric, somewhat
obscure,but totallycompelling novelist.She was earlyrecognized
as one of themostprovocative writersof herera;althoughshe has
attracted cultists,
theydo not constituteherprimary-and certainly
not herexclusive-audience. The timeis clearlyripeforat leasta
provisional assessmentof herwork,and thereare sufficient explora-
tory articlesand reviewsto havebrokenthe groundformorejudi-
ciousoverallviews,evenifthecritics havetroublekeepingpacewith
her.The first twobook-length studieshaveappearedwithinthepast
twoyears, butMissMurdochhas already producedtwomorenovels
sincethelatestonetreated in thesebooks.
Mrs. Byatt'sstudy-amodelof seriousliterary criticism-is a
spare,hard-muscled bookthatsticksto essentials. The substance of
the workconsistsof analysesof the novelsthrough The Unicorn,
for
largely "meanings" in a broad sense. A final chapteraddresses
itselfto the moreliterary concernsof formand style.Mrs.Byatt's
radicalconcisionof thought is hereand thererendered a bit more
difficult a
by periodicity in sentencestructure of unusually crabbed
intensitythat enforcesslowreading. But the qualityof heranalysis
is so highthatone is almostgrateful to have to assimilateit at a
deliberate pace.
Becauseultimately, the pleasureinvolvedin readingthiswork

* A. S.
Byatt.DegreesofFreedom,The Novelsof IrisMurdoch.London:
Chattoand Windus,1965. 224 pp. $6.00.
PeterWolfe. The DisciplinedHeart:Iris Murdochand Her Novels.Co-
lumbia,Missouri:University
of MissouriPress,1966. 220 pp. $5.95.

vIII, WISCONSIN STUDIES

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derivesalmostas much fromwatchingMrs. Byatt'smind at workas
it does fromwhatshe has to sayabout Miss Murdoch'snovels. In a
closely reasoned,intenselyhonest manner,she exploresmeanings
rightup to the sheeredge of theirpossibilities,but stops shortof
fallingover into vaguenessor formulistic clich6. In addition,Mrs.
Byatt refusesto pretend to or to implyany morecertainty than she
can command;she offerspartialor tentativereadingspreciselyfor
whattheyare; if the worklacksa tone of finality, thisis richlycoun-
terbalancedby the exemplarydemonstrationof intellectualrigor
and cleanliness.
Mrs. Byattrestricts herselfprimarily to the experiencesof vari-
ous charactersin the novelsof degreesof freedomin orderingtheir
lives in relationto a transcendant reality,along with the pitfallsof
retreatinto fantasyto whichtheyare oftenprone. Reinforcingthis
distinctionis the oppositionMiss Murdoch frequently discussesin
her essaysbetween two kinds of novels: the "crystalline"fantasy-
mythand the "journalistic" novelofcharacters. Mrs.Byattsees Under
the Net and The Flight fromthe Enchanteras earlyexamplesof
Miss Murdoch'sinnatetendencytowardfantasy-myth; but with The
Sandcastle,the authorbeginsto attempta broadeningof her effects
to encompassthe qualitiesof the second type of novel. Hereafter,
Mrs. Byattsees the successivenovelsas varying amalgamsof the basic
two types.She concludes,along with most other critics,that The
Bell is Miss Murdoch's"mostcompleteachievementso far,"although
she findsAn UnofficialRose more ambitiousand more congruent
with Miss Murdoch's attemptto wed the two kinds of novel, but
ultimately"an imitation-anexcellentimitation-ofa real novel."
Iris Murdoch read Mrs. Byatt'sbook in typescript, and con-
tributedsuggestions forfurther readingand thought; maybe from
it
thissourcethatMrs. Byattmakeswhat seemsto me to be her most
originalcontribution,the close correspondenceshe demonstrates
between The Unicorn and passagesfromSimone Weil and from
Freud'sTotemand Taboo. But equallyexcitingare the waysin which
she uses one novelto illustrateanotherby cross-comparisons; her dis-
tinctionsbetween"planted"and "natural"symbols;her observations
on the "half contemplative"type of character;and the analysesof
typesof suffering.
All of Mrs. Byatt'sjudgments,whichare at the same time per-
sonal and judicious,are backed up by a surecommandof the texts;
sometimesshe throwsawayin a fewlinesinsightsthatwould support
a wholearticlein a low-keyacademicjournal.She is unsparingin her
IRIS MURDOCH 455

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judgmentswhereshe findsMiss Murdochfallingshortof herdemon-
stratedcapacities,particularlyin her treatmentof several of the
adolescentgirls,in the contrivedappearancesof the gypsyin The
Sandcastle,and in the "women'snovelette"qualitiesof that novel.
The veryleast one can say about Mrs. Byatt's work is precisely
whatshe at one pointsaysof Miss Murdoch's: it is "intelligentand
admirable."
Mr. Wolfe's book,whichadds The Italian Girl to those novels
analyzedby Mrs. Byatt,announcesat the outset that most other
criticsareeitherinadequateor superficial;thushe immediately adopts
a finalityof tone farmoreambitiousthan Mrs. Byatt's(whose work
he had apparentlynot seen). But the tone is not entirelyjustified.
Mr. Wolfe seems to have a firmhold on the texts,on Miss Mur-
doch'sphilosophicalstances,and on thecriticism; but thisassumption
has to be takenon faith,likea lightthatshinesintermittently through
a fog,since much of the substanceof his book seems to consistof
readingswhichare irrelevant whentheyare not simplyfanciful.
In the firstplace, it seems to me that the workcontainsphilo-
sophicaldictionand allusionsthat positivelydistractone's attention
and thatdo littleto illuminateMiss Murdoch'sworks;the factthat
Miss Murdoch is a professionalphilosopherought to make critics,
in fact,all the more cautiousabout theircitationof parallelsfrom
philosophy.One wonders,for example,whetherthe frequencyof
referenceto BertrandRussell,Nietzsche,or Jungreflectsthe back-
groundand interestof Miss Murdochor Mr. Wolfe.
Mr. Wolfe largelytakesMiss Murdoch'snovelsas given,as texts
to be explicated,makingfew discriminatory judgments(except for
the endingof A SeveredHead and all of The Italian Girl,whichhe
damns with vigor). But this verydevotionto explicationseems to
edge overintothe stanceof a preacherfacingthe Book of Revelation.
This leads him intowhatI considerto be one of the majorshortcom-
ings of modernAmericanacademic criticism-thehabit of "over-
reading,"of belaboringa textwith arcane,hermeticinterpretations
whichhave no sourcein the textand littlereal relevanceto it. I sup-
pose thatWilliam YorkTindall is as responsibleas Hugh Kennerfor
establishing the game,and variousJungiansand symbol-searchers for
prolonging it,but I, forone,yearnto hear the referee's
whistlebefore
the entireprofession is discredited.
There are manyexamplesof thiskind of readingin the book,
but perhapsthe Prometheanreadingson page 63 serve as well as
anyothers.
456 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

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 Mr. Wolfe points out that the protagonistof Under the Net
writesa poem that is accused of containinganti-Semiticelements,
whereashe merelymeantto referto big business;Iris Murdochalso
treatsa Jewishfilmmagnatein the same novel. For Mr. Wolfe this
situationis solidlyrelatedto Prometheus, how I cannotsee. He then
goes on to enumerate a seriesof theftsin Under the Net (one of
which is palpablyfabricatedout of thin air), but I fail to see Pro-
metheanmeaningshere,unlessall theftis Promethean.
Since Under the Net can be seen as a critique of linguistic
analysis,Mr. Wolfe nextmentionsWittgensteinand Miss Murdoch
in "the same kind of Prometheanrelationship."How? Is Wittgen-
stein Zeus? Is linguisticanalysis,like fire,being withheldfromthe
commonman? If Miss Murdochis stealingit, is she also criticizing
it at the same timethatshe is bringingit to mortalsfortheirbenefit?
And whatabout the restof the story?Are we justto forgetabout the
eagle?
Mr. Wolfe thenconfidently assertsthatthereare "otherJoycean
elementsin the novel,"withouttellingus whathas been Joyceanup
to now. Aftermuch puzzling,I conclude he means forus to see A
Portraitas Promethean,althoughhe neversaysso. I, forone, do not
offhandsee Prometheanmeaningsas essentialto interpreting Joyce,
certainlynot on any evidencepresentedhere. Mr. Wolfe then con-
cludes with some farfetched, incredibleparallelsbetweenA Portrait
and Under the Net. (As a matterof fact,one could make a much
more persuasivecase for seeingA Portraitas the primaryexample
of the solipsistic,"crystalline,"fantasy-myth of retreatinto neurosis
whichMiss Murdochexcoriatesin heressays.)
Mr. Wolfe uses most of the standarddevicesof hermeticread-
ing,includingthe assumptionthat most propernames have hidden
meanings.Some of the sourcesforthesereadingscome fromcurious
places. For example,we are assuredthat"we can gain a richerunder-
standingof both Honor Klein and Martin [charactersin A Severed
Head] by tracingthe concept of sexual poweras it is presentedby
Nietzsche,Jung,and RiderHaggard."One or two of the more fanci-
ful hermeticinterpretations come froma conveniently alphabetized
handbookof symbolspublishedin Witchita,Kansas (which adds to
its helpfulnessby italicizingkey meanings).
While not all of Mr. Wolfe's readingsare as questionableas
thoseI have citedhere,manyof the moreplausibleones are open to
questionsof relevance.
Both of the criticshave largelyignoredbiographicalquestions,

IRIS MURDOCH 457

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as is perhapsjustfora writerstillin mid-career.But since Miss Mur-
doch's husbandis a literarycriticwhose influenceshe has acknowl-
edged,and since the majorchangein her aims as a novelist(which
Mrs. Byattemphasizesas beginningwith The Flight fromthe En-
chanter)followsher marriage, thereis at least roomforspeculation
here.Thereare also interesting
parallelsbetweenthe careerof Simone
Weil and Miss Murdoch'sworkwithrefugeesfollowingthe Second
World War.
Mrs. Byatt'sbook will be mandatoryreadingfor anyonewith
the slightestinterestin Miss Murdoch's novels; it is spare,clean,
and to-the-point, and it offersthe rare pleasureof watchinga dis-
criminating mind at work.Mr. Wolfe's workis based on a thorough
commandof Miss Murdoch'stexts,but it mustbe readwithcaution.
Both bookslack an index.Mr. Wolfe's bibliography is farmoreexten-
sive,although it includessome dross.
FrankBaldanza
BowlingGreenState University

458 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

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