Under The Net

The debut novel from one of the most remarkable writers of the 20th century.Iris Murdoch's first novel is set in a part of London where struggling writers rub shoulders with successful bookies, and film starlets with frantic philosophers. Its hero, Jake Donaghue, is a drifting, clever, likeable young man who makes a living out of translation work and sponging on his friends. A meeting with Anna, an old flame, leads him into a series of fantastic adventures. Jake is captivated by a majestic philosopher, Hugo Belfounder, whose profound and inconclusive reflections give the book its title - under the net of language.

“"Iris Murdoch has imposed her alternative world on us as surely as Christopher Columbus or Graham Greene." --Sunday Times From the Paperback edition.”

Under the Net announces the emergence of a brilliant talent Times Literary Supplement
Of all the novelists that have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable-behind her books one feels a power of intellect quite exceptional in a novelist Sunday Times
A dazzling story, light and comic in touch The Times
Iris Murdoch has imposed her alternative world on us as surely as Christopher Columbus or Graham Greene Sunday Times
This is a comedy with that touch of ferocity about it which makes for excitement -- Elizabeth Jane Howard

Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. She read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, and after working in the Treasury and abroad, was awarded a research studentship in Philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948 she returned to Oxford as fellow and tutor at St Anne's College and later taught at the Royal College of Art. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 and in the 1997 PEN Awards received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature.

'A dazzling story, light and comic in touch' The Times Jake, clever and lazy, makes a living out of writing translations and sponging off his friends. When he is kicked out of his latest lodgings he embarks on a series of fantastic and hilarious adventures around London involving movie stars, majestic philosophers, bookies, singers and a celebrity hound called the Marvellous Mister Mars. See also: The Bell

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