Beyond the Letters

However far away the life brings us from our native place, there is always a moment when we need to return to the roots. In this very moment we meet the narrator of “The Italian Girl” written by Iris Murdoch, a prominent representative of postmodern British literature. Having escaped from the oppressive influence of his mother, Lydia, in his youth, Edmund couldn’t find enough strength to get back to his family up to her sudden death. Now, many years later, Edmund comes to the funeral, where he will meet his relatives, about the life of which he has only a vague knowledge based on a few brief letters. He doesn’t notice any changes at first glance – the same old house, the same family of his brother and the unchangeable Italian servant. But one occasional confession of Edmund’s niece makes him see that the relations between his relatives are more confused than they seemed to be and Lydia’s house keeps m any more secrets… The Gothic atmosphere One of the most interesting features...

I must confess I have a very confused attitude to the literary works of Iris Murdoch as notwithstanding the characteristic style (or rather the manner of writing) her darker novels like  The Unicorn ,  The Flight from the Enchanter  and  The Italian Girl  are so different from the more realistic ones ( The Sandcastle ,  An Unofficial Rose ) that it is sometimes hard to believe they were written by the same author. And though I appreciate and value all of her works, only the gothic novels keep truly fascinating me whenever I read or re-read them. In her dark novels  Iris Murdoch combines gothic and folklore traditions with modern reality  to create something unique and engrossing. To me they resemble neo-Victorian novels and stories of my beloved  A.S. Byatt  ( The Children’s Book ,  Possession ,  The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye ) closely connected with British fairy tales and ancient mythological characters, and that is p...