by Iris Murdoch
‘So I won’t see you before you go?’
‘No.’
‘Shall I come and see you in Calcutta, if I can raise the money from somewhere?’
‘Well, better not.’
There was silence for a moment. Cato put on his coat. ‘So you’re giving me up too?’
‘I’m giving you up too.’
They faced each other.
‘I’ve always kept you as a last resource,’ said Cato.
‘I know. But you mustn’t have this sort of last resource. More conversations like this won’t help you. What after all would they be about?’
‘Oh hell—’ said Cato.
‘I’m going, as it happens, the way things fall out, and I probably won’t be back, at any rate not for many years. All sorts of things will happen to you—’
‘Will you write to me?’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Will you pray for me?’
‘Every day.’
Cato stood in silence, not looking at his friend.
‘It’s raining,’ said Brendan.
‘Yes.’
‘How will you get to King’s Cross?’
‘Taxi. I’ll be O.K.’
‘Have you anything to read in the train?’
‘I’ll get a paper.’
‘By the way, did you see that Lucius Lamb had died? His obituary was in today’s Times.’
‘Really? Poor old chap.’
‘Did you ever read any of his poems?’
‘No. I’m told they were awful.’
‘Some of the early ones were rather good, at least I thought so when I was a boy. I remember one that impressed me very much. It was called The Great Teacher.’
‘What was it about?’
‘I can’t recall—I can just sort of conjure up the atmosphere.’
‘I must go, Brendan.’
‘Do promise me you’ll go to Pennwood soon, at least you must go for Christmas.’
‘It won’t be plain living and high thinking at Pennwood, it’ll be Christmas carols and Yule logs and domestic happiness up at the Hall.’
‘Go and complete their happiness.’
‘Colette’s pregnant.’
‘I’m so glad.’
‘Well—’
‘Oh, and I wanted you to have this.’
Brendan fiddled in a cupboard and brought out a dark green velvet-covered box. He opened it. The ivory Spanish crucifix was nestling inside.
‘Oh Brendan—aren’t you taking it?’
‘No, I wanted you to have it. I’ll take your one, the one you left behind on the bed that night when you ran out on me. It’s a good exchange.’
‘Oh—thank you—it’s so beautiful.’
‘Good-bye then. God bless you.’
It was raining hard outside. Cato set off, watching out for taxis. The crucifix, in its case, heavy and awkward inside his macintosh pocket, banged irregularly against his thigh at each step.
A Biography of Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) was one of the most influential British writers of the twentieth century. She wrote twenty-six novels over forty years, as well as plays, poetry, and works of philosophy. Heavily influenced by existentialist and moral philosophy, Murdoch’s novels were also notable for their rich characters, intellectual depth, and handling of controversial topics such as adultery and incest.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Murdoch moved to London with her parents as a child. She attended Somerville College in Oxford where she studied classics, ancient history, and philosophy. While at Oxford, she was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (which she later left, disillusioned) and, in the 1940s, worked in Austrian and Belgian relief camps for the United Nations. After completing her postgraduate degree at Newnham College in Cambridge, she became a Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford, where she lectured in philosophy for fifteen years.
In 1954, she published her first novel, Under the Net, about a struggling young writer in London, which the American Modern Library would later select as one of the one hundred best English-language novels of the twentieth century and Time magazine would list as among the twenty-five best novels since 1923. Two years after completing Under the Net, Murdoch married John Bayley, an English scholar at the University of Oxford and an author. In a 1994 interview, Murdoch described her relationship with Bayley as “the most important thing in my life.” Bayley’s memoir about their relationship, Elegy for Iris, was made into the major motion picture Iris, starring Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, in 2001.
For three decades, Murdoch published a new book almost every year, including historical fiction such as The Red and the Green, about the Easter Rebellion in 1916, and the philosophical play Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues. She was awarded the 1978 Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea, won the Royal Society Literary Award in 1987, and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 by Queen Elizabeth.
Her final years were clouded by a long struggle with Alzheimer’s before her passing in 1999.
Murdoch as an infant with her mother, Irene, in 1919. Irene was a trained opera singer, though she gave it up after Iris was born. Murdoch’s father, John, worked as a civil servant once the family moved to London.
Murdoch in 1923, at age three or four. She was an only child and remembered her childhood as “a perfect trinity of love.” Her father encouraged her to read at a young age and her favorite authors included Lewis Carroll and Robert Louis Stevenson.
The London house in which Murdoch grew up, seen here in 1926.
Murdoch in 1935. She was studying philosophy, classics, and ancient history at Oxford at the time of this photo.
Murdoch with an unidentified friend in 1946. At this time Murdoch was studying philosophy at Cambridge, where she enrolled after working for the United Nations to help Europeans displaced by the Second World War.
John Bayley, Murdoch’s husband, in the 1960s. The two were married in 1956 after meeting at Oxford.
Murdoch and Bayley at an unknown date. One of the couple’s shared passions was swimming, which they did together whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Bayley and Murdoch on vacation in Orvieto, Italy, in September 1988, with family friend Audi Villers, whom Bayley married after Murdoch’s death.
Bayley and Murdoch in Delft, Holland, in 1996. Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the mid-1990s.
Bayley’s writing desk, which originally belonged to J.R.R. Tolkien. Murdoch’s scrapbook can be seen atop the desk.
Iris’s writing desk. Bayley’s book, An Elegy for Iris, published in 1999, is a loving tribute to their long marriage and recounts the last years of Iris’s life.
Murdoch and Bayley’s home in Steeple Aston, near Oxford, where the couple lived until Murdoch’s death. Bayley had an indoor pool built at the house for Murdoch to go swimming—one of her favorite hobbies—whenever she chose.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1976 by Iris Murdoch
ISBN: 978-1-4532-0092-6
This edition published in 2010 by Open Road Integrated Media
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