Iris Murdoch, A Word Child

Frances Clare Patricia White (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 1975

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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A Word Child

is the seventeenth of Iris Murdoch's twenty-six novels. Hilary Burde, the “word child” of the title, is the fifth of her six unreliable first-person male narrators. He is one of Murdoch's “maimed monsters” and “accidental men”. This novel shows Murdoch at the height of her novelistic powers and in full control of a sophisticated narrative technique. It exemplifies Murdoch's unique gifts identified by her admirers, but it also manifests besetting her faults as they have seemed to her detractors. In both matter and manner,

A Word Child

is a quintessentially “Murdochian” novel.

As an illegitimate orphan, Hilary shares a troubled childhood with his half-sister Crystal, with whom he is “oned” in love. Destined for delinquency and prison he is “saved”

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2274 words

Citation: White, Frances Clare Patricia. "A Word Child". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10027, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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