One of the prominent writers of postwar British literature, Iris Murdoch has published twenty-six novels, five philosophical books, five plays, a book of poetry, and most recently two edited volumes of previously uncollected work--another book of poetry and a book of essays. She has also worked in such far-ranging genres as the short story, a play for radio, a pamphlet, a cantata, and the libretto for an opera by William Mathias, The Servants (1981), based on her play The Servants and the Snow (1973). In his introduction to Iris Murdoch (1986) Harold Bloom remarks, "No other contemporary British novelist seems to me of Murdoch's eminence. . . . She . . . has the style of her age." Her literary awards include the Black Memorial Prize for The Black Prince (1973), the Whitbread Literary Award for fiction for The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974), and the Booker McConnell Prize for The Sea, The Sea (1978). She was named Dame...