The rest of the novel is focused on Charles’ delusionary obsession with Hartley, or the ideal of his own past that she represents. The main theme of the novel is established with the realisation that his long lost childhood love, Hartley, is living in town with a partner who Arrowby determines to be a violent and threatening presence, and resolves to “save” her from him. We also learn that he has a tendency to see more than is really there, including a memorable early sighting of a “sea monster” - which he is tempted to attribute to previous consumption of hallucinogens, but never seems quite willing to accept as definitively unreal. The novel begins with its central protagonist, Charles Arrowby, a successful and somewhat famous theatre director and playwright, abandoning his career and London life and social circle for a solitary life by the sea, in a strange and somewhat dilapidated house.Įarly on we get a sense of Charles’ self-aggrandizing tendencies, viewing himself as a modern-day Prospero, and otherwise imbuing his every move and action with huge and (obviously) theatrical significance, even his rather unappetizing sounding meals. She married literary critic and novelist John Bayley, whose memoirs of her, notably her final years suffering from Alzheimers, were dramatised in the 2001 film Iris, with Kate Winslet and Judi Dench portraying Murdoch. This was her first win despite an impressive three previous shortlisted novels in the first ten years of the Prize. Perhaps one of the best-known authors to have won the Booker so far.

Dame Iris Murdoch (1919-1999 active 1954-1995), prolific novelist, philosopher, poet and playwright (in her time).

The sea the sea iris