Iris Murdoch and Marriage 2027

‘Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one’s luck.’

Our annual Iris Murdoch course for 2027 will focus on marriage in her novels. We will study five key novels from across her writing career:
The Sandcastle (1957)
A Severed Head (1961)
A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970)
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974)
The Book and the Brotherhood (1987)

These five books explore a wide range of themes and scenes connected with marriage, from the potent domesticity of The Sandcastle, the Restoration comedy drama of A Severed Head, comfort and catastrophe in A Fairly Honourable Defeat, double lives and double ‘marriages’ in The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, remorse and pain in The Book and the Brotherhood, and much else besides. We will explore the brilliant world of Murdoch’s relationships and marriages, both religious and secular, erotic and disastrous, across these five works.

The course will also draw upon Murdoch’s letters, unpublished journals, poetry, non-fiction and philosophy to give a real sense of the novelist’s craft in action.

Live online course: five lectures and seminars with Miles Leeson, Sundays, fortnightly, 10 January to 7 March 2027.

Dr Miles Leeson is Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester, UK. He has previously led courses for Literature Cambridge on Murdoch and London, Murdoch and the Gothic, Murdoch and Art, Murdoch and Love, and Murdoch and the Natural World. This is our sixth annual Iris Murdoch course.

Course fees (prices include 20% VAT)

£260 full price
£230 members of the Iris Murdoch Society
£230 students on a low income
£230 CAMcard holders

Recordings

The lectures are recorded so that participants can listen again during the course, and for 2 weeks afterwards, if they wish. The seminars are not recorded.

Zoom link

We will send you a Zoom link at least 24 hours before the course begins. Please let us know in good time if the link does not arrive, so that we can re-send.

If you cannot attend a course you have booked

Please note that, because places are limited, we cannot usually give refunds if you cannot attend a course. But if you contact us in advance, we might be able to transfer your booking to a different course.

Click on the image below to book.