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The Bell (Vintage Classics)
 
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The Bell (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Iris Murdoch (Author), A.S. Byatt (Introduction)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (5 Feb 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099470489
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099470489
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 7,293 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Murdoch, Iris
    #3 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Byatt, A.S.

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Product Description

Review
An Anglican lay community on an estate attached to a convent of Anglican nuns provides the setting for some quite melodramatic happenings - suicide, a wrecked marriage, an antiquarian cause celebre - among the small and eccentric band of idealists. Not since the early Huxley novels have such a varied, neurotic and strange group of characters enacted their amorous and philosophical adventures against the mellow background of a stately English home. The community's director, a devout and intelligent young man, keeps trying to convince himself that his lapses into homosexuality are not really sufficient moral cause to prevent his becoming a priest. The very beautiful girl whose ??bitions to enter the convent make her the pride of the community turns out to be a schizophrenic in love with the director (who had seduced her brother). The naive college boy eager to partake of the good and pure life seduces a visitor's willing wife, takes part in a hoax concerning the convent's new bell that ruins the community and becomes involved with the director in a fashion that forever demolishes his hope of being a priest. Naturally these and other less sensational but very amusing characters and the hothouse atmosphere of a whacky English Brooks Farm provide ample opportunity for satire. But it is Miss Murdoch's special gift that makes her people real and sympathetic as well as bulls-eye targets for a most Jively?? wit. By now Iris Murdoch's novels should have won her a select and appreciative following in this country, and The B?? can only add to her growing stature. However, after the brilliantly surrealistic invention of The Flight From The ?? one feels in this book as in the previous novel, where fantasy was abandoned for more realistic plot and treatment, that something is missing, that the author could have done even more with her talents. Nevertheless she is certainly one of the few young novelists to watch. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sunday Times
...behind her books one feels a power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, 12 Jan 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bell (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
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!
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling tale of repressed passions and buried secrets., 10 Jul 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bell (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
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.

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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, but somewhat dated, 4 Jun 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bell (Vintage classics) (Paperback)
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read but a bit dated and academic
I enjoyed reading the Bell. It depicts such a variety of human lives and mentalities it can't be but interesting. Read more
Published 7 months ago by the

2.0 out of 5 stars Worthy but... not worth it
I studied this book, not out of choice, so perhaps mine is just the typical resentful schoolboy attitude. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Morena

5.0 out of 5 stars Strikes a chord (sorry...)
Here is a book, almost fifty years old, that feels as fresh and urgent as the best contemporary fiction.

It is full of shocks. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Simon4

5.0 out of 5 stars Who has all the answers? Whose fault is it?
I was reading The Bell whilst touring a play to churches around the country...It was a strange coincidence that it was grappling the themes that I was also exploring each night on... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2006 by Tru

4.0 out of 5 stars A slow start, but worth the read
Not one of the easiest books to start- it's just a description of Dora Greenfield's main history untill her arrival at Imber. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2005 by R.J.W89

2.0 out of 5 stars Iris Murdoch - The Bell - wet characters, dulled suspense
If you are the kind of person who likes reading to provoke endless academic debate/consideration, then this is the book for you. I personally found it tiresome. Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published on 11 Jul 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of 'The Bell'.....
So you're thinking about buying the book...

I would say that this book is a good read for all you book lovers out there. Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2001 by wilbypalmer@aol.com

4.0 out of 5 stars I never would have picked up this book...
I'm currently studying 'The Bell' for my AS Level and when I first read it, I thought, 'what a load of rubbish! Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2001 by Alison B

5.0 out of 5 stars By far her best
The moment I finished reading Iris Murdoch's "The Bell" I was furious with myself I had not done so earlier. Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2001

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