Under the Net.

MURDOCH, Iris.

$7,500.00

Item Number: 142046

London: Chatto & Windus, 1954.

First edition of Murdoch’s first novel which announced “the emergence of a brilliant talent” (Times Literary Supplement). Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by Iris Murdoch on the title page. Additionally laid in is a signed postcard, which reads, “Merry Christmas! Iris” postdated December 19, 1953. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket, name to the front free endpaper. Jacket design by Victor Ross. Rare and desirable signed.

Set in London, it is the story of a struggling young writer, Jake Donaghue. Murdoch's first novel, its mixture of the philosophical and the picaresque has made it one of Murdoch's most popular novels. It is dedicated to Raymond Queneau. When Jake leaves Madge's flat in Chapter 1, two of the books he mentions taking are Murphy by Samuel Beckett, and Pierrot mon ami by Queneau, both of which are echoed in this story. The epigraph, from John Dryden's Secular Masque, refers to the way in which the main character is driven from place to place by his misunderstandings. It was listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.