| Writer, philosopher. Date of Birth: 15.07.1919 Country: Ireland |
Iris Murdoch was a renowned writer and philosopher. Born on July 15, 1919 in Dublin, Ireland, she attended Somerville College, Oxford University and completed her education at the University of Cambridge.
From 1942 to 1944, Murdoch worked at the British Treasury. She then joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in London, Belgium, and Australia until 1946. In 1948, she became a professor at Oxford University.
In 1957, Murdoch married the English novelist and critic, D.O. Bailey. Her first published book was a work on Jean-Paul Sartre titled "Sartre: Romantic Rationalist" in 1953. In her novels, Murdoch followed an existentialist view of the world, depicting how individuals believe they consciously control their lives, while being influenced by subconscious or elemental forces.
For example, in her novel "A Severed Head" published in 1961, several sophisticated individuals in the capital city engage in cozy and superficial love affairs, until they encounter a woman who lives with real and dangerous passion, causing them to realize their own insignificance. Murdoch's characters strive for love and personal freedom to prove their true existence to themselves and others.
The boundaries of freedom and the limits within which one can truly know oneself define the content of Murdoch's first novel, "Under the Net" published in 1954, a modern variation of the picaresque novel. Murdoch also wrote other notable novels such as "The Flight from the Enchanter" (1956), "The Sandcastle" (1957), "The Bell" (1958), "An Unofficial Rose" (1962), "The Red and the Green" (1965), "The Nice and the Good" (1968), "Bruno's Dream" (1968), "The Black Prince" (1973), "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine" (1974), "The Sea, the Sea" (1978; Booker Prize), "The Philosopher's Pupil" (1983), and "The Message to the Planet" (1990).
In 1987, Murdoch was awarded the Order of the British Empire. She passed away on February 8, 1999 in Oxford.