The time of the angels

Murdoch, Iris

Published by London: Chatto & Windus, 1966

Murdoch, Iris. The time of the angels. First edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1966. Hardback, VG, in unclipped dustjacket with minor shelfwear and vertical creases to inside flaps. Blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Binding strong, slight forward lean. 253pp. Light foxing to top edge of page block. Contents clean and bright. The Time of the Angels is a philosophical novel. First published in 1966, it was her tenth novel. The novel centres on Carel Fisher, an eccentric Anglican priest who is the rector of a London church which was destroyed by bombing during World War II. Fisher denies the existence of God and the possibility of human goodness in a post-theistic world. The novel, which has elements of Gothic fiction, received mixed reviews on its publication. Critics have treated The Time of the Angels primarily as a philosophical novel. A.S. Byatt has characterized it as a "mythical" novel in which the thematic patterns and underlying structure have "more aesthetic power than the individual characters". She argues that it is "best read as a mannered philosophical myth, or fantasy" and that Murdoch's inclusion of passages of "emotional immediacy" such as her initial description of Pattie O'Driscoll's origins and early life tends to create "jarring effects or difficulties" for readers. Others have described it as a "gothic" novel, in which a sinister priest presides over a ruined church in an atmosphere of cold fog and darkness. Conradi calls it "a Gothic and a religious novel", and thus similar to Murdoch's 1963 novel The Unicorn. RightWayUp Books aims to provide accurate and detailed descriptions. All images are of the actual book for sale - no stock images are ever used. Thank you for looking at this listing. Seller Inventory # ABE-1693604495678

Bibliographic Details

Title: The time of the angels
Publisher: London: Chatto & Windus
Publication Date: 1966
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition