The Bell (novel)
First English edition cover
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| Author | Iris Murdoch |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Charles Mozley |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Published | 1958 by Chatto & Windus |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 319 pp |
| OCLC | 13437360 |
| 823.914 | |
| LC Class | PR6063.U7 |
The Bell is a novel by Iris Murdoch. Published in 1958, it was her fourth novel. It is set in Imber Court, a lay religious community situated next to an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns in Gloucestershire.
The setting is Imber Court, a country house in Gloucestershire that is the home of a small Anglican lay religious community. It is situated next to Imber Abbey, a convent belonging to an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. The owner of Imber Court and the community's de facto leader is Michael Meade, a former schoolmaster in his late 30s. The community supports itself by a market garden.
The novel begins with the journey of Dora Greenfield from London to Imber by train. Dora is a young former art student who is married to the difficult and demanding Paul Greenfield, an art historian who is staying at Imber Court as a guest while studying 14th-century manuscripts belonging to the Abbey. Dora left her husband six months earlier, but he has persuaded her to return to him. On the same train are Toby Gashe, an 18-year-old boy who has just finished school and is going to spend a few weeks as a guest at Imber Court before starting university, and James Tayper Pace, a community member who formerly ran a settlement house and led youth groups in the East End of London.
Among the community members is Catherine Fawley, a young woman who is preparing to enter the convent as a nun. Her twin brother, Nick, is living at Imber Court's lodge. Nick is a troubled and troublesome character, often drunk, who has been invited to Imber Court at the request of his sister in the hope that the spiritual surroundings will be of benefit to him. Fourteen years earlier Michael, then a schoolmaster with aspirations to the priesthood, had been in love with his teenaged student Nick. The relationship was unconsummated and apparently mutual, but Nick informed the school's headmaster. As a result, Michael lost his job and did not see Nick again until he came to stay at Imber Court, where the two do not acknowledge having known each other in the past.
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