John Bayley's account of his long and loving marriage to the great novelist Iris Murdoch takes us on a journey, from their love affair's comically inauspicious beginnings in the Oxford of the early fifties (Bayley courted Iris on account of her unchallenging plain looks and their first date consisted of a revolting dinner followed by a disastrous dance when Iris sprained her ankle) to its slow and painful closure when the onset of Alzheimer's more than forty years later, which should be devastating. Yet as Bayley charts the gradual dissolution of Iris's remarkable intellect side by side with the detail of their gloriously eccentric and profoundly satisfying life together, what emerges is the complex portrait of an enigmatic and brilliant woman and of a marriage of quite extraordinary, unforced happiness, and some remarkable insight into the richly mysterious symbolism of Iris Murdoch's novels. Wry, intelligent, and unexpectedly hilarious, IRIS is an unforgettable inquiry into the nature of love and identity and a uniquely moving articulation of loss.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
This is the greatest love story of our age. Incomparable' OBSERVER 'A beautiful testament of love' IRISH TIMES 'A brave and poignant of a very English marriage' TIMES 'A unique glimpse into the alchemy of marriage ... a work of art' Victoria Glendinning, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Love has everything and nothing to do with it. John Bayley has set the gold standard for a debased currency; changed the meaning of the word' GUARDIAN 'Exquisite ... an extraordinary love story' SUNDAY TIMES
About the Author
John Bayley is the author of ALICE, THE QUEER CAPTAIN, GEORGE'S LAIR and THE RED HAT. He was Warton Professor of English at the University of Oxford and is a fellow of St Catherine's College.
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2 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I thought it would be much better,
This review is from: Iris a Memoir of Iris Murdoch (Paperback)
I only read about 40 some pages--and that was enough for me to decide I had enough. I was very interested to read this memoir, but it let me down. I think this book uses too many big words that I get lost in--that takes away from the author's experiences. It was also hard to follow who the author is speaking about and his relationship to them.
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