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The Bell

First edition of Iris Murdoch's The Bell

Iris MurdochJean Iris Murdoch, 1919–1999

First edition. 8vo. Pp. 319, [1]. Publisher's green cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Jacket design by Charles Mozley (priced 15s net to front flap).
Light offsetting to the endpapers, mild tanning to verso of d/w bar spine panel, else Fine.
Author's fourth novel. A Burgess 99 title. The installation of a new bell at a Gloucestershire Abbey is the springboard for an exploration of the ceaseless struggle between sex and religion. Inspired by Murdoch's occasional retreats to Malling Abbey in Kent, whose lay community and enclosed religious order of Benedictine nuns are here "recreated wholesale". Dramatised for the BBC in a four-part serialisation in 1982 with Ian Holm and Tessa Peake-Jones in the main roles. "[A] masterpiece of direct narrative." –Elizabeth Bowen
[Fletcher & Bove A0028; Conradi, Peter J. (2001). The Saint and the Artist: a Study of the Fiction of Iris Murdoch (3rd ed.). London: Harper Collins]
edition
first edition
format
hardback
publisher
Chatto & Windus
published in
London
publication year
1958
ISBN
not assigned
height × width
20.5 × 14 cm
genre
literary fiction
language
English
binding style
cloth
binding state
original binding
condition  . . .
fine
of jacket
fine
GBP£ ​150
EUR€ ​181
USD$ ​193
ref.8UL UYQ