A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Synopsis

In this dark comedy of errors, Iris Murdoch portrays the mischief wrought by Julius, a cynical intellectual who decides to demonstrate through a Machiavellian experiment how easily loving couples, caring friends, and devoted siblings can betray their loyalties. As puppet master, Julius artfully plays on the human tendency to embrace drama and intrigue and to prefer the distraction of confrontations to the difficult effort of communicating openly and honestly.

Author Biography

Iris Murdoch was born in 1919 in Dublin and studied at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1948 she became a fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize on numerous occasions with – The Nice and the Good (1969), Bruno’s Dream (1970), The Black Prince (1973), The Good Apprentice (1985) and The Book of the Brotherhood (1987) – and won in 1978 for The Sea, the Sea. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1976 and in 1987 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2001 her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library. After a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Iris Murdoch died in 1999.