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been unfaithful to him and for nearly killing him. Peter had been an abusive and unfaithful husband, and was often absent. During one of these absences, Hannah had an affair with Pip Lejour, who owns a nearby house called Riders. Peter arrived home unexpectedly and caught them in bed together. Later, after a struggle between Hannah and Peter, Peter fell over a cliff. He was badly injured but survived. He then left Gaze, leaving the estate in the hands of his former lover Gerald
Scottow.
167:
shoots and kills Gerald, and later runs away from the house and falls or jumps from a cliff and is killed. On his way back to Gaze after hearing of Gerald's death, Peter is killed when the car in which Denis is driving him from the airport goes into the sea. At the end of the novel
Effingham and Marian return separately to London.
278:. He argues that while using "the conventions of English soft-boiled mystery fiction", Murdoch actually "toys with conventions". In his view, Marian and Effingham allegorically represent modern ideas and attitudes, while the Gaze household represents medieval Christianity and the Riders household headed by Max Lejour represents
247:
reviewer emphasized the novel's Gothic characteristics, and commented that it "has that magnetic quality that is more usually the attribute of the detective story". The reviewer suggests that while the "familiarity of her material is one of her strengths", the reader is "led further and further into
158:
In Part 3 Effingham changes his mind and the rescue attempt takes place. He and Marian try to take advantage of Gerald
Scottow's absence to abduct Hannah in Effingham's car, but the attempt fails. Another car, driven by Max's daughter Alice Lejour, unexpectedly comes toward them, and Effingham's car
150:
In Part 2 the narrative focus moves to
Effingham Cooper, another outsider who arrives on the scene from London. Effingham is a successful public servant in his forties who is visiting his retired former Philosophy tutor Max Lejour, Pip Lejour's father, at Riders. Effingham is in love with Hannah and
146:
Part 1 describes Marian's growing awareness of the situation at Gaze Castle, as recounted to her by other characters. Her main informant is Denis Nolan, the estate's clerk. She learns that Hannah has been confined to Gaze and its grounds by her husband Peter for seven years as punishment for having
142:
is set in a remote area on the west coast of
Ireland. The book begins with the arrival of Marian Taylor, a young English school teacher who has accepted a position as governess at an isolated country house called Gaze Castle. She is surprised to learn that there are no children at Gaze, and that she
206:
of the title is a symbol of Christ. The book's philosophical themes are presented chiefly by the
Platonist philosopher Max Lejour, in his conversations with his former student Effingham Cooper. Their discussion of the situation at Gaze Castle in Chapter 12 deals with power, freedom, suffering, and
162:
Part 4 begins with
Effingham's experiences wandering in the bog, in which he becomes stuck before being rescued by Denis Nolan. Gerald announces that Peter Crean-Smith is returning to the house after an absence of seven years. Hannah summons Gerald to her room, where he spends several hours. Gerald
166:
Parts 5, 6 and 7 describe a series of violent events that result in the deaths of several of the main characters. After Gerald announces that Peter is not returning after all, and that he and Hannah are staying, Pip Lejour comes to Gaze and asks Hannah to leave with him, but she refuses. Hannah
251:
Several critics have remarked on the "closed" nature of the novel. Murdoch herself distinguished between the open novel, in which the characters are free to act, and the closed novel whose structure creates "a mythic and poetic intensity which the characters on occasion subserve". She has been
210:
The typically
Murdochian situation of an "enchanter" character surrounded by his or her coterie is exemplified by the household at Gaze. The relationships among the characters also illustrate the connection between erotic love and power relations that runs through Murdoch's fiction.
252:
criticized for exercising a "tyranny of form over character" while writing "according to the dictates of an obsolete standard and within the context of tired patterns". Conradi, on the other hand, argues that
Murdoch's closed novels, of which
159:
goes off the driveway and gets stuck in mud. Gerald
Scottow returns to Gaze just in time to see what has happened. Effingham leaves with Alice in her car. Later, Alice returns with the news that Effingham has become lost in the bog.
29:
155:
adoring Hannah from afar. Marian urges him to join her in a plan to rescue Hannah. He refuses, saying that Hannah is resigned to her fate and does not want to leave.
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But Miss Murdoch is a kind of enchantress. While you are under the spell of her yarn, she is also doing all kinds of things to your imagination.
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is one, were not mere experiments in genre fiction, secondary to her more character-driven works, but were "central to her purpose".
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Both religion and philosophy are important themes in the book. The central character Hannah is a believing Christian and the
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her own elaborately Gothic setting and story by encouraging the reader to see through the characters' self-deception.
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he tries to persuade to run away with him, but she refuses. He resigns himself to the situation, seeing himself as a
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Sullivan, Zohreh T. (Winter 1977). "The Contracting universe of Iris Murdoch's Gothic novels".
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Kuehl, Linda (Fall 1969). "Iris Murdoch: The novelist as magician / the magician as artist".
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187:", including massive cliffs overlooking a dangerous sea, isolated castles, mysterious
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Stewart, Jack (Winter 2002). "Metafiction, metadrama, and the God-game in Murdoch's
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will be teaching French and Italian to the lady of the house, Hannah Crean-Smith.
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announces that he is going to take Hannah away from Gaze before Peter arrives.
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notes the author's effective use of "the stage props and scenery of the
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The novel's dramatic plot and remote setting are characteristic of
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The Saint and the Artist: A Study of the Fiction of Iris Murdoch
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Buitenhuis, Peter (12 May 1963). "The Lady in the Castle".
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831:The Three Arrows & the Servants and the Snow
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282:philosophy. A later academic interpretation of
131:. Published in 1963, it was her seventh novel.
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395:(2 ed.). London: Harper Collins.
248:the mystery and terror of existence".
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429:. New York: Oxford University Press.
698:The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
262:devoted a chapter in his 1967 book
215:Literary significance and reception
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925:Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
179:. Murdoch biographer and critic
847:Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues
321:. London: Vintage. p. ix.
274:he attributes to the novel is
1:
586:The Flight from the Enchanter
901:Sartre: Romantic Rationalist
818:(with J. B. Priestley, 1964)
754:The Book and the Brotherhood
241:reviewed it favourably. The
933:Existentialists and Mystics
826:(with James Saunders, 1969)
351:Journal of Narrative Theory
33:First British edition cover
992:
976:Novels set in County Clare
674:A Fairly Honourable Defeat
443:Conradi, Peter J. (2001).
391:Conradi, Peter J. (2001).
966:Chatto & Windus books
762:The Message to the Planet
26:
421:Scholes, Robert (1967).
909:The Sovereignty of Good
738:The Philosopher's Pupil
961:Novels by Iris Murdoch
650:The Time of the Angels
499:Modern Fiction Studies
477:Modern Fiction Studies
219:According to Conradi,
971:British Gothic novels
882:Poems by Iris Murdoch
658:The Nice and the Good
642:The Red and the Green
363:10.1353/jnt.2011.0000
917:The Fire and the Sun
451:. New York: Norton.
447:Iris Murdoch: A Life
286:argues that Murdoch
53:Christopher Cornford
16:Book by Iris Murdoch
956:1963 British novels
746:The Good Apprentice
71:Chatto & Windus
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618:An Unofficial Rose
520:. pp. 4, 24.
225:"was mystified by
197:carnivorous plants
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877:(1978, rev. 1984)
797:Something Special
778:Jackson's Dilemma
730:Nuns and Soldiers
682:An Accidental Man
270:. The variety of
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87:Publication place
49:Cover artist
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855:The Black Prince
823:The Italian Girl
770:The Green Knight
722:The Sea, The Sea
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315:"Introduction"
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171:Major themes
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43:Iris Murdoch
22:The Unicorn
18:
626:The Unicorn
347:The Unicorn
319:The Unicorn
284:The Unicorn
268:The Unicorn
254:The Unicorn
227:The Unicorn
195:containing
140:The Unicorn
124:The Unicorn
950:Categories
893:Philosophy
458:0393048756
402:0007120192
297:References
272:fabulation
232:The Tablet
561:Works by
505:(4): 569.
371:162193816
238:The Month
229:", while
222:The Times
189:megaliths
115:695766236
100:Hardcover
67:Publisher
799:" (1957)
602:The Bell
313:(2000).
280:Platonic
276:allegory
59:Language
204:unicorn
98:Print (
62:English
936:(1997)
928:(1992)
920:(1977)
912:(1970)
904:(1953)
885:(1997)
866:Poetry
858:(1987)
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842:(1980)
834:(1973)
781:(1995)
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39:Author
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367:S2CID
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397:ISBN
323:ISBN
235:and
135:Plot
109:OCLC
82:1963
359:doi
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