Iris Murdoch, An Unofficial Rose

Anne Rowe (Kingston University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1962

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The philosophical concern of

An Unofficial Rose

is to illustrate Murdoch's Platonic view of the soul which, as she sees it, is “a mixture of knowledge and illusion immersed in a reality which transcends it, failing or succeeding to learn in innumerable ways the difference between true and false, good and evil” (

Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals

, 148). The plot revolves around the marital problems of a father and son, Hugh and Randall Peronett. Each man is faced with an identical problem at different points in time. They have to decide whether or not they should leave their dull wives for their more exciting and attractive mistresses. While the father, Hugh, had made the decision to stay with his wife, some twenty-five years before the events of the novel, the son, Randall, leaves his…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

992 words

Citation: Rowe, Anne. "An Unofficial Rose". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 December 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10026, accessed 23 April 2024.]

Save this article