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Penguin Classics (2001), Edition: 2nd, Paperback, 320 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. HTML:A motley assortment of characters seek peace and salvation in this early masterpiece by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, The Sea A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an order of sequestered nuns. A new bell is being installed when suddenly the old bell, a legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. And then things begin to change. Meanwhile the wise old Abbess watches and prays and exercises discreet authority. And everyone, or almost everyone, hopes to be saved, whatever that may mean. Originally published in 1958, this funny, sad, and moving novel is about religion, sex, and the fight between good and evil. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)
Media reviews
Dora, a young, irresponsible art student, marries Paul, who is thirteen years older, and finds him decisive, possessive, authoritative and violent: 'Something gentle and gay had gone out of her life'. She leaves him and 'passed the summer drinking and dancing and making love and spending Paul's
Clearly this is a butterfly highly charged with symbolic value.
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allowance on multi-coloured skirts'. She then decides to return to him, and goes by train, very nervous. On the carriage floor she sees a butterfly crawling; picks it up and holds it safely until the train stops and she gets out and meets her husband who finds she has left his property on the train, and 'His face was harshly closed'. He asks her why she is holding her hands so oddly, and she opens them 'like a flower'; the butterfly 'flew away into the distance'.Clearly this is a butterfly highly charged with symbolic value.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Leseratte2
Several years ago I read [Under the Net] because (a) it was on the Random House 100 Best Novels in English list (b) I'd never read Iris Murdoch and (c) it was short. I barely remember anything about it now, beyond a vague impression of a loosely-constructed, almost plotless novel, populated by
Fast-forward to the present: I decided to give Murdoch another try. For about the first 100 pp. I thought, "Well, here we go again. Another cast of characters Iris didn't seem to like any more than I do. Great." There's something cartoonish and even grotesque about her characters, which sometimes works for me (Barbara Comyns, Charles Dickens) and sometimes doesn't (Ronald Firbank, Charles Dickens). My dislike began to fade once Gabriel, a.k.a. The Bell, entered the picture. At that point I became truly interested and was far less annoyed by Murdoch's stylistic affectations and the fact that there was no one in the book I truly liked. Some of the characters were growing and changing; I found myself wondering how it would all turn out; and I had to admit that even though I wasn't a fan of her style, Murdoch was an exceptional writer. While I doubt that I will ever read another of her novels, I do think that, ultimately, The Bell was worth the time I spent reading it.
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fools and jerks, which had failed to live up to its label of "comic." I was not the least bit amused; if anything, I was rather angry that I'd wasted time and money on it.Fast-forward to the present: I decided to give Murdoch another try. For about the first 100 pp. I thought, "Well, here we go again. Another cast of characters Iris didn't seem to like any more than I do. Great." There's something cartoonish and even grotesque about her characters, which sometimes works for me (Barbara Comyns, Charles Dickens) and sometimes doesn't (Ronald Firbank, Charles Dickens). My dislike began to fade once Gabriel, a.k.a. The Bell, entered the picture. At that point I became truly interested and was far less annoyed by Murdoch's stylistic affectations and the fact that there was no one in the book I truly liked. Some of the characters were growing and changing; I found myself wondering how it would all turn out; and I had to admit that even though I wasn't a fan of her style, Murdoch was an exceptional writer. While I doubt that I will ever read another of her novels, I do think that, ultimately, The Bell was worth the time I spent reading it.
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LibraryThing member anthonywillard
I had never read an Iris Murdoch novel. I remember her being all the rage when she first started publishing them. She's not so often heard of now. Not to say she's unknown : all or nearly all her novels are in print to this day. I remember her being regarded as psychological and difficult. Now that
It's hard to put a finger on the peculiarity. There are no fireworks or eccentricities. She writes cultivated but unadorned English prose. She's not nearly as overtly Freudian as Virginia Woolf. The Bell has a very suspenseful plot. The author has no axes to grind or drums to beat. Still, the novel is sort of weird.
It is the story of a summer in the lives of a group of middle-class English misfits who have found themselves members of a so-called lay community attached loosely to an Anglo-Catholic monastery of cloistered nuns living in a restored medieval abbey in the west of England. The nuns, being cloistered, do not figure much in the story. The members of the adjunct lay community, Imber it's called, exhibit various degrees of flakiness, from mild OCD to flat-out lunacy.
The Bell is said to be the first of Murdoch's religious novels, but from my point of view it is about ethics, rather than religion as such. Most of the characters share a kind of high-church Anglicanism without too much questioning. And the ones who do question it tend to keep their mouths shut (at least on that topic). The author's interest is in the nature of ethical decision making, and she uses the issues of homosexual child abuse (the children in this case being boys in their mid-teens, not small children), and heterosexual marital infidelity and abusive behavior. None of this ever gets down and dirty, but the thoughts and motivations of the characters involved are explored to a fare thee well. The author looks at all angles and does not take sides.
The novel is in some ways a period piece. The author maintains a non-judging approach towards homosexuality, for instance, keeping the focus on the characters' own attitudes: but the unquestioning valuation of homosexual behavior as being obviously wrong, and of homosexual orientation as a personality disorder, is taken for granted by all the characters, including the gay ones. There are other unquestioned assumptions that are vestiges of the 1950's as well, some of which may not be noticed by those who weren't there then.
These ethical explorations are hung on a tightly constructed plot which builds to an engrossing series of climactic scenes. It involves a medieval bell with a Gothic legend attached to it, which is said to have been hurled centuries ago into a nearby lake, and to peal on rare occasion to herald an untoward death. The characters with their loves and guilts and neuroses all play into this legend up to the violent denouement.
An interesting book. I don't know if I'll read any more Murdoch. You might like it if you like psychological novels or novels of ideas, so to speak. Murdoch was after all on the philosophy faculty at Oxford, and an expert on Sartre. No wonder she could be a little grim.
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I have read The Bell, I would say she is not difficult. She's peculiar, that's what she is.It's hard to put a finger on the peculiarity. There are no fireworks or eccentricities. She writes cultivated but unadorned English prose. She's not nearly as overtly Freudian as Virginia Woolf. The Bell has a very suspenseful plot. The author has no axes to grind or drums to beat. Still, the novel is sort of weird.
It is the story of a summer in the lives of a group of middle-class English misfits who have found themselves members of a so-called lay community attached loosely to an Anglo-Catholic monastery of cloistered nuns living in a restored medieval abbey in the west of England. The nuns, being cloistered, do not figure much in the story. The members of the adjunct lay community, Imber it's called, exhibit various degrees of flakiness, from mild OCD to flat-out lunacy.
The Bell is said to be the first of Murdoch's religious novels, but from my point of view it is about ethics, rather than religion as such. Most of the characters share a kind of high-church Anglicanism without too much questioning. And the ones who do question it tend to keep their mouths shut (at least on that topic). The author's interest is in the nature of ethical decision making, and she uses the issues of homosexual child abuse (the children in this case being boys in their mid-teens, not small children), and heterosexual marital infidelity and abusive behavior. None of this ever gets down and dirty, but the thoughts and motivations of the characters involved are explored to a fare thee well. The author looks at all angles and does not take sides.
The novel is in some ways a period piece. The author maintains a non-judging approach towards homosexuality, for instance, keeping the focus on the characters' own attitudes: but the unquestioning valuation of homosexual behavior as being obviously wrong, and of homosexual orientation as a personality disorder, is taken for granted by all the characters, including the gay ones. There are other unquestioned assumptions that are vestiges of the 1950's as well, some of which may not be noticed by those who weren't there then.
These ethical explorations are hung on a tightly constructed plot which builds to an engrossing series of climactic scenes. It involves a medieval bell with a Gothic legend attached to it, which is said to have been hurled centuries ago into a nearby lake, and to peal on rare occasion to herald an untoward death. The characters with their loves and guilts and neuroses all play into this legend up to the violent denouement.
An interesting book. I don't know if I'll read any more Murdoch. You might like it if you like psychological novels or novels of ideas, so to speak. Murdoch was after all on the philosophy faculty at Oxford, and an expert on Sartre. No wonder she could be a little grim.
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LibraryThing member woollymammoth
This was a gift from my girlfriend because the community is similar in some ways to the one I grew up in. I love Iris Murdoch, she manages to create totally believable characters in very few words.
LibraryThing member Kasthu
The Bell is set in the lay community belonging to Imber Abbey, home to an order of sequestered nuns. The Abbey is about to get a new bell, a time-honored symbol of standing witness. At the same time, there’s a legend about the old, medieval bell, which is said to ring when death approaches. Imber
Although it’s only February, I can tell that this is going to be one of my top reads for 2012. I loved every bit of this book from start to finish. Although the book is set in a religious, or semi-religious, community, this wasn’t a particularly religious book. Instead, it’s about ethics, love, and sex (about which the author was extremely candid, given that the book was published in the 1950s).
All of the characters are thoroughly messed up: Paul is selfish and thoughtless, Dora is a bit of a wet blanket, Michael continually struggles with an ethical dilemma, Nick struggles with alcoholism and guilt. For a community that’s supposedly so religious, all of these characters have vices and flaws! But that’s what makes them so interesting as characters—one wonders if Dora, for example, will ever grow a backbone. I grew to care about the characters in this novel, even though I despised a few of them. The only one who didn’t completely jump off the page for me was Catherine, who seems to be an afterthought. But Murdoch writes in very clear, descriptive prose, and other than my minor criticism, I thought that this was a fabulous novel.
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Court contains a variety of complicated people: Paul Greenfield, whose wife, Dora, comes back to him after running away; Michael Meade, the head of the community, who has an unpleasant history with Nick Fawley; Nick’s sister Catherine, who is about to enter the religious order, and Toby, a teenage boy who becomes involved with Michael Meade.Although it’s only February, I can tell that this is going to be one of my top reads for 2012. I loved every bit of this book from start to finish. Although the book is set in a religious, or semi-religious, community, this wasn’t a particularly religious book. Instead, it’s about ethics, love, and sex (about which the author was extremely candid, given that the book was published in the 1950s).
All of the characters are thoroughly messed up: Paul is selfish and thoughtless, Dora is a bit of a wet blanket, Michael continually struggles with an ethical dilemma, Nick struggles with alcoholism and guilt. For a community that’s supposedly so religious, all of these characters have vices and flaws! But that’s what makes them so interesting as characters—one wonders if Dora, for example, will ever grow a backbone. I grew to care about the characters in this novel, even though I despised a few of them. The only one who didn’t completely jump off the page for me was Catherine, who seems to be an afterthought. But Murdoch writes in very clear, descriptive prose, and other than my minor criticism, I thought that this was a fabulous novel.
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LibraryThing member lethalmauve
A sense of ennui prevails and clouds over The Bell despite its seemingly unshakeable spiritual sentiments. Murdoch's lucid prose baffles, tempts then almost seduces innocence to destroy itself at the surge of forbidden desire. She makes independence toil to discover its own worth against the
"With strong magnetic force the human heart is drawn to consolation; and even grieving becomes a consolation in the end."
A delightful, effectual read amidst its little spells of tragedy.
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deceitful freedom that both religion and marriage can promise; caging instead of emancipating. A friction between a "calling" and a "passion". The Bell resounds at a distance — hauntingly and tearfully. It drowns in its subtle dissonance almost to a dying shrill before pushing itself up for air; gasping. Then it resounds, faintly, rings, cautiously of hope, in time. And this takes time. However burdening guilt, regret, grief, and rejection may be, there is a place somewhere for everyone not only to nurse but also to heal. People also break each other's hearts in this compelling tale of brooding faith and disbelief. They break even their own. Though none of Murdoch's characters are completely likeable, they manoeuvre in a reality glaringly familiar with all of us: the struggle with knowing and accepting one's flawed self; and most powerful: the forgiveness of mistakes, the unalterable past, and our ever changing selves. Sometimes you have to put and think of yourself first."With strong magnetic force the human heart is drawn to consolation; and even grieving becomes a consolation in the end."
A delightful, effectual read amidst its little spells of tragedy.
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LibraryThing member welkinscheek
Good lord, how have I never read Ms Murdoch before. Gorgeous, though the introspective tangents got a little long at times, they were also absolutley charming. Great for anyone who loves Virginia WOlf and George Eliot.
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
A wonderfully cast of characters, both batty and interesting, converges on Imber Abbey in Gloucestershire. According to a legend, the abbey bell flew into the lake centuries earlier when a bishop cursed the place because of the sexual misdemeanours of one of the nuns. A new bell is to be installed,
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but Toby and Dora find the old bell in the lake and decide to effect a bell-swap. Chaos ensues in this delightful novel from the pen of Iris Murdoch. Show Less
LibraryThing member amerynth
"The Bell" is another solid novel from the wonderful Iris Murdoch. She does a good job of giving a perspective on religion, marriage, homosexuality and the struggles of a number of various characters in an entertaining way.
The story starts following Dora Greenfield, who left an unhappy marriage,
Overall, it was an entertaining story and a fun read. "The Bell" definitely isn't Murdoch's best work (and I think it was one of her earlier books) but it still made for a good read.
The story starts following Dora Greenfield, who left an unhappy marriage,
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only to return to her husband who is staying in a lay community attached to an Abbey of reclusive nuns. The book jumps around, giving the perspective of several different characters -- though some in the book aren't drawn quite so well.Overall, it was an entertaining story and a fun read. "The Bell" definitely isn't Murdoch's best work (and I think it was one of her earlier books) but it still made for a good read.
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LibraryThing member thorold
This book has dated a lot in the fifty years since it was written, of course, but it's still well worth a look. The modern reader will find it difficult to imagine that long-distant period when the Anglican Church was able to get its knickers in such a twist about homosexuality... (no, sorry,
It's an early novel, and it has its faults. Oddly for a woman writer, the female characters often seem to be perilously close to caricatures, whilst the men are much more believable. The book deals with big, serious issues, but it isn't over-serious or pompous in any way. By switching the POV between cynical Dora, naïve Toby, and guilt-ridden Michael, Murdoch prevents us from getting bogged down in one character's set of values, and is able to examine all of them with a certain amount of irony.
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scratch that last sentence!).It's an early novel, and it has its faults. Oddly for a woman writer, the female characters often seem to be perilously close to caricatures, whilst the men are much more believable. The book deals with big, serious issues, but it isn't over-serious or pompous in any way. By switching the POV between cynical Dora, naïve Toby, and guilt-ridden Michael, Murdoch prevents us from getting bogged down in one character's set of values, and is able to examine all of them with a certain amount of irony.
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LibraryThing member jennyo
My book group chose this book for our March read and we'll be discussing it in a couple of weeks. I'm glad I'm going to have a little time to let my thoughts percolate before our discussion. This is that kind of book, one that doesn't overwhelm so much with its plot (though it does have one) or its
I didn't really like many of the characters, except perhaps for Toby whose innocence makes it hard to dislike him, but they did all seem real to me. Real enough that I often had physical reactions to them. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to shake Dora or beat the ever-living crap out of Paul or yell at Michael to stop analyzing and start doing.
I think this is a book I could read again and find more food for thought. It's sort of like Faulkner, not in style, by any means, but in that you read it because it really gets your brain churning, not just because it's a pleasant way to while away a few hours. I may have more thoughts to log about this one later. We'll see.
There is much to ponder here. Much to discuss.
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characters (though it certainly has those), but with all the conflicting ideas and ideals presented. If I were to try to tell you what it was about, I'd have to say it's about spirituality, sexuality, "good" and "bad" (though we waver through them being nebulously and strictly defined), and mostly about human frailty.I didn't really like many of the characters, except perhaps for Toby whose innocence makes it hard to dislike him, but they did all seem real to me. Real enough that I often had physical reactions to them. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to shake Dora or beat the ever-living crap out of Paul or yell at Michael to stop analyzing and start doing.
I think this is a book I could read again and find more food for thought. It's sort of like Faulkner, not in style, by any means, but in that you read it because it really gets your brain churning, not just because it's a pleasant way to while away a few hours. I may have more thoughts to log about this one later. We'll see.
There is much to ponder here. Much to discuss.
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LibraryThing member bsquared46
A story of several people attending a religious community, not all of them religious, for various reasons. Their individual problems and the interaction of the characters culminating in an 'incident', has an effect on them all. A bit dated, but well written. I thought that the arriving was perhaps
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better than the travelling with this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member stephenmakin
I grew up in a cult, so my girlfriend brought me this book.
It's a wonderful portrait of a Christian Sect. I find Murdoch paints wonderful pictures of people, always realistic - but not always likeable.
I haven't read any Iris Murdoch, but I keep thinking that I should.
It's a wonderful portrait of a Christian Sect. I find Murdoch paints wonderful pictures of people, always realistic - but not always likeable.
I haven't read any Iris Murdoch, but I keep thinking that I should.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
I wanted to get to this book all year and I truely saved the best for last it appears. This is a great story, good character development and an interesting story. The book is published in 1958 and to some extent that is obvious but it also is not dated in many ways. The story is set in a lay
A quote, pg 165 "Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port".
Also another book with some psychiatric history. This book is written in 1958. It mentions insulin shock treatments and even mentions that "insulin was making her fat". It also mentions drugs and it was about this time that Thorazine was being used.
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community outside of an abbey of cloistered nuns. A new bell is to arrive for the nunnery and thus the title of the story. There is also a myth about the past bell which is said to be lost in the lake and if you hear its ring there will be a death. The characters are all misfits in someway and thus they are drawn to this lay community because they don't fit in. Three people are merely visitors to the community, The errant wife, the cruel and cold husband and the boy who is heading off to engineering college. The reformed homosexual leads the community, there is the novice who has schizophrenia and the innocent youth and the alcoholic. The themes is the struggle of sex and religion.A quote, pg 165 "Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port".
Also another book with some psychiatric history. This book is written in 1958. It mentions insulin shock treatments and even mentions that "insulin was making her fat". It also mentions drugs and it was about this time that Thorazine was being used.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Murdock is sort of mix of Muriel Spark and Evelyn Waugh, but has a unique voice all her own. Symbols and characters clash to show us the interplay between motive and action. Like Spark, her novel can be read on several levels.
LibraryThing member isabelx
The moonlight made the high wall look insubstantial and yet somehow alive, with that tense look of deserted human places at night. Toby, as a Londoner, was not used to moonlight, and marvelled at this light which is no light, which calls up sights like ghosts, and whose strength is seen only in the
I found a copy of this book in the ship's library while on a cruise, and decided to read it becuase I remembered enjoying the TV adaptation. Interestingly, I realised that most of the male actors were a lot older than the characters in the book (aklthough I can see why in the case of Toby), while the female actors were about the right age.
I had forgotten most of the plot, includingwho it was that successfully commits suicide at the end but found the themes of religion, homosexuality and marriage interesting, although Michael is so lacking in self-knowledge that I found the parts that he narrated quite irritating. Actually, now I come to think of it, the other narrators Toby and Dora do not really understand what is going on all the time, but they are outsiders who are only visiting the lay community for a few weeks, while Michael is the leader of the community.
This was my first Iris Murdoch novel, but I will probably read more.
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sharpness of cast shadows.I found a copy of this book in the ship's library while on a cruise, and decided to read it becuase I remembered enjoying the TV adaptation. Interestingly, I realised that most of the male actors were a lot older than the characters in the book (aklthough I can see why in the case of Toby), while the female actors were about the right age.
I had forgotten most of the plot, including
This was my first Iris Murdoch novel, but I will probably read more.
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LibraryThing member antao
(Original Review, 2002)
“Toby had received, though not yet digested, one of the earliest lessons of adult life: that one is never secure. At any moment one can be removed from a state of guileless serenity and plunged into its opposite, without any intermediate condition, so high about us do the
In "The Bell" by Iris Murdoch
I first encountered the word 'rebarbative' in The Bell.
I don't think that something requires strict definition in order to have, or generate, meaning. I don't need an "a priori" definition of life in order to try to live; I just get on with doing the best I can. I suppose we operate within a general understanding of love as a looking-beyond-oneself or an acting-towards-the-Other, but whether one could, or would wish to, narrowly define love in a way that somehow includes the very different senses of love that one might have for one's partner, and children, and parents, and siblings is another matter. In terms of the language analogy, I suppose that one would not be trying to invent a language of one's own, but constantly rearranging the pre-existing vocabulary to communicate better with others (love thereby being less about an impossible identification with the Other, and more about a communion?). Which begins to sound less like Levinas and more like New Age bunkum, but that's the best I've got at this juncture in time.
Iris Murdoch and hope - now there's a conundrum to waste an afternoon! Still hopelessness is in the head of the beholder eh? Oh, it's definitely hope in the sense of 'this dark tunnel is very long, I do hope there's a light at the end of it. I suspect there isn't but it's better to keep walking than just sit down'. Which may well be to say: hope as a necessary illusion.
“Toby had received, though not yet digested, one of the earliest lessons of adult life: that one is never secure. At any moment one can be removed from a state of guileless serenity and plunged into its opposite, without any intermediate condition, so high about us do the
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waters rise of our own and other people’s imperfection.”In "The Bell" by Iris Murdoch
I first encountered the word 'rebarbative' in The Bell.
I don't think that something requires strict definition in order to have, or generate, meaning. I don't need an "a priori" definition of life in order to try to live; I just get on with doing the best I can. I suppose we operate within a general understanding of love as a looking-beyond-oneself or an acting-towards-the-Other, but whether one could, or would wish to, narrowly define love in a way that somehow includes the very different senses of love that one might have for one's partner, and children, and parents, and siblings is another matter. In terms of the language analogy, I suppose that one would not be trying to invent a language of one's own, but constantly rearranging the pre-existing vocabulary to communicate better with others (love thereby being less about an impossible identification with the Other, and more about a communion?). Which begins to sound less like Levinas and more like New Age bunkum, but that's the best I've got at this juncture in time.
Iris Murdoch and hope - now there's a conundrum to waste an afternoon! Still hopelessness is in the head of the beholder eh? Oh, it's definitely hope in the sense of 'this dark tunnel is very long, I do hope there's a light at the end of it. I suspect there isn't but it's better to keep walking than just sit down'. Which may well be to say: hope as a necessary illusion.
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LibraryThing member lisapeet
I enjoyed this very much—such a good balance of plot and detail, with some non-trite ruminations on character, religion, sexuality, and power imbalances (I was going to just say relationships, but let's call 'em as Murdoch saw 'em). The whole effect was very propulsive, and the setting kept me
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Googling photos of English country houses, which is never a bad thing. Good fun without being silly at all. Show Less
LibraryThing member japaul22
This was a book that I read with a LT group read. I've never heard of the author or book and had no expectations going in. The beginning of the book struck me as kind of creepy and I thought it might go a bit gothic. The set up is a young woman, Dora, in a stifling marriage. She leaves her husband
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but decides to go back to him after 6 months. At that point he is living and working (seems to be some sort of historian) with a small religious community attached to a convent. She goes there to be with him and we meet the other people living there and learn about the myth of the old bell that was lost during the dissolution of the abbey in the 1300s. After a while, I figured out that the book wasn't really going the gothic direction and it ended up being more of a relationship study. The interesting thing is that some of the characters are homosexual and I thought that, especially considering this was written in the 1950s, this was written with a lot of understanding and lack of prejudice. Show Less
LibraryThing member wirkman
Iris Murdoch's most successful "early novel." A beautiful book. It is not in her mature style, but it is great nevertheless.
LibraryThing member lilywren
I hadn't read any books by Murdoch before but she was one of those writers whom I had on my 'must read' list. The Bell shows how the enjoyment of books (as with other creative genres) is so subjective! I could write about the story it involves, that of a community and the people living amongst it,
I have read a lot of reviews that give The Bell high praise indeed, and rightly so. Murdoch's use of language and her ability to draw us into that world through her wonderful descriptive prose is second to none. The description of the community and it's environment is written in such a way that I could almost have been there. In my opinion, it is, first and foremost, a wonderfully descriptive book.
However, I did find it tough going at times and, dare I say,*whispers* a little dull. However, as I said, books are subjective and I have had trouble reading ANY book of late. I decided to persevere with The Bell! 'I will not leave yet another book unfinished!' I told myself and in doing so discovered it was the last few chapters that had been worth the wait and perseverence and, as bqsquared said in their review below, I found the arrival better than the journey.
Whilst I loved the descriptive elements of the book, I found the chacarters left me a little cold. I found I could not empathise or like any of them which is usually important for me when reading a book. Nor did they hold my interest. Other than Michael, I found them a little 'thin' and one dimensional. Maybe this is deliberate or maybe I was missing something at the time of reading.
I hate to give any book a negative review, in fact I rarely do! Authors take so long writing something with so much care, something that I could never do and what I like, someone else will not and vice versa.
All I can offer are my own opinions about The Bell which, on the whole, are that it is a wonderfully descriptive book but with characters that were a little one dimensional and self absorbed for my liking and did not hold my interest long enough to actually care. I gave 3 stars purely on the way in which Murdoch writes and how her words flow from the page, not necessarily for the story.
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but there are many here who have written about this far better than I could!I have read a lot of reviews that give The Bell high praise indeed, and rightly so. Murdoch's use of language and her ability to draw us into that world through her wonderful descriptive prose is second to none. The description of the community and it's environment is written in such a way that I could almost have been there. In my opinion, it is, first and foremost, a wonderfully descriptive book.
However, I did find it tough going at times and, dare I say,*whispers* a little dull. However, as I said, books are subjective and I have had trouble reading ANY book of late. I decided to persevere with The Bell! 'I will not leave yet another book unfinished!' I told myself and in doing so discovered it was the last few chapters that had been worth the wait and perseverence and, as bqsquared said in their review below, I found the arrival better than the journey.
Whilst I loved the descriptive elements of the book, I found the chacarters left me a little cold. I found I could not empathise or like any of them which is usually important for me when reading a book. Nor did they hold my interest. Other than Michael, I found them a little 'thin' and one dimensional. Maybe this is deliberate or maybe I was missing something at the time of reading.
I hate to give any book a negative review, in fact I rarely do! Authors take so long writing something with so much care, something that I could never do and what I like, someone else will not and vice versa.
All I can offer are my own opinions about The Bell which, on the whole, are that it is a wonderfully descriptive book but with characters that were a little one dimensional and self absorbed for my liking and did not hold my interest long enough to actually care. I gave 3 stars purely on the way in which Murdoch writes and how her words flow from the page, not necessarily for the story.
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LibraryThing member libraryhermit
The main thing I remember about this book is the claustrophobic sense of a community whose members are not necessarily prevented from coming and going, because I think they can, but rather, it is the magnetism and constraints of the group that keep people there. I am reminded of the closed room
I kept wanting to say to the people at Imber Abbey (Akimber Abbey, where everything is akimbo): Get out, get out, get out, while you still can!
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mysteries like And Then There Were None, or of Jonestown, or of space missions, or of monasteries: any place where you come to to be isolated, but you may or may not be able to up and leave if you feel like it.I kept wanting to say to the people at Imber Abbey (Akimber Abbey, where everything is akimbo): Get out, get out, get out, while you still can!
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LibraryThing member margaretfield
lay religious retreat, next to an Abbey and the interactions of the people and something about a bell
LibraryThing member yarb
My sixth Murdoch and I've yet to read a duff one. This, her fourth novel, is set in a lay community of more or less spiritual seekers, attached to an abbeyful of cloistered nuns in 1950's Gloucestershire. Murdoch puts her characters through a kind of existential dressage, pushing them awkwardly,
One thing I love about Iris Murdoch is how palpably amused she is at the antics of her characters. Her stories all wear this aspect of delightful archness, yet she never sneers at her creations or abuses them. I think if I could be a character in one author's stories, I'd choose her.
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and often comically, round an obstacle course whose end is self-knowledge.One thing I love about Iris Murdoch is how palpably amused she is at the antics of her characters. Her stories all wear this aspect of delightful archness, yet she never sneers at her creations or abuses them. I think if I could be a character in one author's stories, I'd choose her.
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LibraryThing member kencf0618
Someday I suppose I'll chew through Iris Murdoch, but today is not that day.
LibraryThing member jgoodwll
Excellent novel with treatment of homosexuality surprisingly insightful for 1971. A lay religious community and the flaws in the personnel. Leading to tragedy but it's not clear what the tragedy is to be until it happens.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1958
Physical description
320 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
0141186690 / 9780141186696