Murdoch, (Jean) Iris

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Murdoch, (Jean) Iris (1919–99) British novelist and moral philosopher, b. Ireland. Murdoch created her own genre, the philosophical love story. Her early novels, culminating in The Bell (1958), are short and concise. Her later novels, such as The Black Prince (1973), the Booker Prize-winning The Sea, the Sea (1978), The Good Apprentice (1985), and The Book and the Brotherhood (1987), are longer and more elaborate. Recurrent themes include the difference between sacred and profane love and the nature of chance.

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