Dora had left him six months earlier because she was afraid of him and was returning for the same reason. Paul is thirteen years older and is an art historian. The various characters include Dora Greenfield who is staying at Imber Court whilst her husband Paul is researching the Abbey archives. The legend of the bell is that it fell into the lake after a 14th century Bishop had cursed the Abbey when a nun was discovered to have a lover and had drowned herself. In fact most of the characters, with the exception of Dora, come across more as stereotypes than real people.Ī lay community lives next to an enclosed order of nuns, a new bell is being installed and then the old bell, a legendary symbol of religion and magic is retrieved from the bottom of the lake. There was also too much detail about the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters – Michael Meade – for my liking, and yet for all the description he didn’t seem a real person, but more a mouthpiece for Murdoch’s philosophical thoughts. But I just couldn’t work out the layout and that is actually relevant in this book. Iris Murdoch wrote beautiful English, with detailed descriptions of the location – Imber Court, Imber Abbey and the lake and woods around them. I first read The Bell years ago and it remained in my memory as an excellent book, but this time round I think my reading tastes have changed because, although I still liked it, I no longer found it so enchanting.
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