Miss Murdoch's Latest Wins Critic's Plaudits

Reviewed by Don A. Keister THE BELL. By Iris Murdoch, (Viking Press. $4.50. 342 pp.) There can't be much doubt about Iris Murdoch (born in Dublin in 1919, now an Oxford tutor): her fourth novel makes it more obvious than ever that she is one of the most skilled and sensitive novelists to emerge since the war.

Miss Murdoch sets the stage for the intricate action of "The Bell" as carefully, as a playwright sets his. Because she has worked it out so thoroughly and because she reverts often to one or another of its details, the setting Imber Court, an English country place, with its surroundings, a lake, a wood, fields, an adjoin the real dramas are internal: ing abbey occupied by a group of nuns-is etched on the memory and takes on a kind of life of its own which helps to unify the novel.

Imber Court belongs to Michael Meade, who is trying to make a go of the little Anglican religious community he has established there. He is sincerely religious, but the homosexual inclination which ruined his earlier career as a teacher and which he thinks he has overcome is aroused by the arrival of young Toby to spend a vacation period in the community.

Already on the scene is the man who was responsible for Michael's earlier mishap, malevolent, alcoholic Nick, whose sister is a member of the community and about to become a nun in the adjoining monastery.

Further complication is supplied by the Greenfields, the husband an art historian staying at the Court to study its archives, and his young wife Dora who can't get along with him but is back again for a final try.

Most of the outward action centers on a medieval bell that Toby finds in the lake. But

Iris Murdoch

in Michael's struggle for control and ultimate peace; in Dora's effort to free herself and develop her potential for life and happiness; in Toby's puzzled reaction to Michael and the interest that Dora arouses