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Shvoong Home>Lifestyle>Hobbies>The Sea, the Sea Review

The Sea, the Sea

Book Review   by:SM THOMPSON     Original Author: Iris Murdoch
  • Summary rating: 5 stars (1 Ratings)
  • Visits : 7
  • words:600 
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A lot has been written about Irish Murdoch so its a pleaasure to read some more in Weekend Guardian and an article by Arts Correspondent - Mark Brown - has the fascinating headline:

Dear Philippa - Iris Murdoch's love revealed in letters ...

Iris Murdoch's profound love for one of her closest friends and for a while her lover the philosopher Philippa Foot are revealed in a collection of letters acquired by a British archive with £1O7,OOO: Lottery Money - Kingston University for Iris Murdoch Studies now owns 25O letters written by Murdoch to Foot from the 194Os to the 199Os:
The pair met while they were students at Oxford and had a brief affair in the 196Os - their friendship was tempestuous and they fell out ....one letter from Murdoch concerns a reconciliation in 1959 - "Thank you for your letter - it said what I would most have wished it to say - losing you and losing you in that way was one of the worst things that ever happened to me - I hope very much that we can ..... recapture something ... I have thought of you so much in these years, and dreamed painfully of you too ... I would certainly wish only to speak to you from the heart".

In 1968 the year their relationship became more physical - Murdoch wrote - sometimes I feel I have to invent a language to talk to you in though my heart is very full of definite things to say - dont be angry with my peculiarities - I love you very much:

And again the article continues with more revelations of Murdoch's life as follows:

My dear, thank you so much for the exotic Olympain stockings - I love being given stockings by you:

Murdoch was born in Dublin and the letters shine light on her views on Ireland as follows:

One from 1978 ....we are going ... to France for a conference on Irish literature - it will be interesting to see if the French are sentimental about Ireland - I feel unsentimental about Ireland to the point of hatred. It is a terrible country .. I cant say that in public of course - MUCH LOVE, my dear:

Another one reads: We have been in France : at a Franco Irish conference - it was nice being in Normandy but the sounds of those Irish voices made me feel privately sick - they just couldnt help sympathising with the IRA like Americans do ...... a mad bad world: Je pense toi - Best NEW YEAR ....... much love:

Murdoch wrote 26 novels including the Booker winning: The Sea, the Sea: in her final years she battled with Alzheimers a struggle documented in her husband John Bayley's memoir: Elegy for Iris on which the film Iris was based:

Published: September 02, 2012   
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