July 15, 1919

Like too many modern writers, the life of Iris Murdoch (July 15, 1919 to February 8, 1999) is the really interesting story. For instance, how impervious to betrayal by her lovers, Murdoch appears, in memoirs by her friends.

Of her writing though, how often we have felt on the verge of some insight in her fiction, only to find the candy, when unwrapped, disappointing. An example, a minor example, is in a description of a cat in The Book and The Brotherhood (1986), a Man Booker nominee. First in fairness, we have an astute observation from the book. About sons of her cousins, the heroine, Rose, an "aging spinster," muses. In the author's words, describing the boys' move to London: they would be "expecting to be invited to Boyars, even perhaps to be allowed to borrow the house, and generally patronizing her with the naive insolence of the young."

At the time of the story the cat in question was 8 years old, and had been adopted in kittenhood, after being found in the rain. This cat is called "Mousebrook".  But after it was called that in one scene, we read: "In fact the cat's full name was Mousebrook the Mauve Cat, but Rose did not feel matey enough with Lily yet to tell her that. " Actually, the full names of cats are simply not the source of dramatic reservations: intricate cat names reflect on the writer's need to be thought clever.

Here is a link to more biographical information about Iris Murdoch.  Although-- John Bayley said once that he didn't like cats, though Iris did, and that may say it all.