The Time Of The Angels Iris Murdoch

The Time Of The Angels

Carel is widowed rector presiding over a London church destroyed during the war. The rectory is home to an array of residents: his daughter, Muriel; his beautiful invalid ward, Elizabeth; their West Indian servant, Pattie; Eugene, a Russian emigre, and his delinquent son, Leo. Carel's brother, Marcus, is co-guardian of Elizabeth, but his attempts to get closer to the rector are constantly rebuffed. These seven characters maintain a constant dance of attraction and repulsion, misunderstanding and revelation, the centre of which is the enigmatic Carel himself - a priest who believes that, God being dead, His angels have been released.

Iris Murdoch

A Critical Study of Iris Murdoch’s Fiction

The Fictional Scene In England, Immediately After The Second World War, Makes An Interesting Reading. Many Critical Studies Have, In Great Depth, Investigated The Historical Processes To Highlight The Various Directions The Novelists Moved In Then. At The Same Time, There Was A Concurrent And A Deliberate Attempt On The Part Of These Novelists To Discard The Heritage Of 'Modernism.' Iris Murdoch, Who Is One Of The Most Prominent Novelists Of This Period, Also Shared The Distrust Of Her Contemporaries For The So-Called Literary Radicalism. However, She Remains Distinct As A Writer Among Her Contemporaries, In Her Awareness Of The Problems Of The Novel And Language, In Her Adherence, Both To The Idealism About Human Potentiality And Perfectibility That Liberal Humanism Had Contained. But She Is Also Conscious Of The Limited Individual Capacity To Reach That Ideal. Her Creative Career Is Marked By Her Desire To Bring Back To The Novel, Some Of Its Earlier Comprehensive Vision Of Life, Society And Human Character.The Present Book Attempts To Reveal Those Important Areas Of Murdoch'S Thought Which Set Her Apart From Other Novelists Writing At That Time. Her Search For Literary Metaphors Which Aim At Restoring To Novel Some Of Its Lost Moorings Is A Significant, Almost Iconoclastic Effort. Taking Help From Her Non-Fictional Treatises, An Attempt Has Been Made In This Book To Highlight The Platonic Burden Of Her Literary And Aesthetic Creed.