Product Description

First published in 1958, Iris Murdoch's funny and sad novel is about religion, the fight between good and evil and the terrible accidents of human frailty. Encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an enclosed order of nuns, is a community of very mixed-up people waiting for the installation of a new bell, but then the old one is rediscovered.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121579 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 330 pages

Kingsley Amis
A distinguished novelist of a rare kind

Sunday Times
...behind her books one feels a power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist

John Betjeman
Iris Murdoch really knows how to write, can tell a story, delineate a character, catch an atmosphere with deadly accuracy

Customer Reviews

A compelling tale of repressed passions and buried secrets.
As a newcomer to Murdoch (despite the fact that our house is full of her books) I thought I'd pick a random one off the shelf. It would seem that fate had decreed me to pick 'The Bell'. It sounded ok from the blurb and I threw it in my bag before a train journey that I was to take later that day. I always read on the train but this time it was different. I was literally so absorbed that I didn't notice that we had been delayed for an hour along the way. It's hard to begin to describe what captivated me in my first experience with Iris Murdoch's writing. For a start it was interesting from the first page. The characters were restless and unsatisfied. They'd make up their mind that they were adamantly not going to do something and then in the next sentence do exactly what they had forbidden themselves. Most importantly they were real. Murdoch seemed to have her psychology down to such perfection. Anything that was said or done by her characters whether satisfying or annoying was thoroughly easy to comprehend. I have to say that I'm still amazed at her finesse in capturing the most specific of human foibles. But this is just character. The plot of 'The Bell' is magnificent in its sinister glory. The story is relatively simple but is spiked with a growing sense of unease and malice that ticks away like a timebomb waiting to explode. However this atmosphere is mellowed by the presence of innocence and untainted youth. I do not want to go into the finer points of the narrative as they have to be seen within the context of the novel but I can assure you that in no way does the story disappoint.

Iris Murdoch sadly suffered a great decline with the onset of Alzheimer's disease. However at the height of her powers she was one of Britain's greatest writers. Dark, beautiful, meditative and reflective are all words that could be used to describe 'The Bell' but none can really do justice to its subtle power. In fact such is its magic that it is only when you go on to read something else that you realise how profoundly it has affected you. Find it, read it, treasure it and fall under its spell.

Well-written, but somewhat dated
I had always been afraid of reading Iris Murdoch novels, imagining that an Oxford philosopher's fiction would be far too high-brow for me. However - I was wrong, and I would recommend this book as a good starting point for others who have yet to taste the delights of her work.

The Amazon review is a fair summary of the plot - the interest lies in watching how a newly-formed community, where the members have different levels of commitment, deal with challenges. I felt that Murdoch's sympathies lay with those who were somewhat outside the boundaries of the community, and I think she portrayed them beautifully.

The chief note of caution I would insert, however, is that the book is of its time (1958, I think - the year after the Wolfenden report recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales), and I was left wondering how Murdoch would have treated her subject in 2001. But perhaps the stimulus to thought was valuable in itself!

I hope others are also tempted to try reading this novel - I imagine that anyone who has enjoyed Muriel Spark, for example, would also enjoy this author.

An excellent read
This was one of those books that I couldn't put down. Iris Murdoch paints complex pictures of people, who develop and change, and her plots work on multiple levels. This was no exception: emotionally, she depicts the characters developing understanding of themselves and their world. The characters both grow and find their "core". On a philosophical level, it touches on sexuality, motivations, religion. And then there is the story: I was surprised to find myself gripped by the middle of the book by what the characters were going to do next, having been "set up". Scatty, sensuous Dora in the woods at night alone with young Toby.... and a bell... Definately worth reading. I would have loved to have seen the BBC's dramatization of it!