Iris Murdoch shone as a first -line philosopher, was a novelist celebrated and received honors such as the order of the British Empire. But no tribute was as beautiful as the one her husband dedicated, John Bayleyin ‘Eleía A Iris’. It was published … In 1999, the year in which the writer died, sick of Alzheimer’s, and Elba publishing house has had the success of recovering it. Bayley draws an arc that goes from the moment he fell in love with her – “was almost supernatural, after having seen her bike from the window- to the final days, wrapped in the” insidious fog “of the disease.
‘Elegia A Iris’ is a song impregnated with tenderness, a portrait of a marriage of shared solitudes. “We were together because we were comforting the loneliness that each perceived in the other,” Bayley writes. More than lovers, they were accomplices of silent intimacy. Bayley does not save some Murdoch adventures and his past relationships. In marriage they both felt safe. “You can live for years with a person without having the feeling of being married,” he writes, citing the novelist Anthony Powell. But when you take the final step you feel “immediately that you have entered a new sphere of sensations and behaviors.”
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Author
John Bayley -
Translation
Fernando Borrajo -
Editorial
Elba, 2024 -
Number of pages
264 -
Price
23 euros
Bayley links his memories with Murdoch with the present from which he writes, an exercise that balances nostalgia and pain. It does not stop excessively in the ravages of Alzheimer’s, and when it does there is an almost poetic sensitivity, such as when it marvels at its unexpected smiles. “Alzheimer’s patient’s face only suggests absence,” he writes, “that’s why the sudden appearance of a smile is so extraordinary.” Bayley builds a fragile atmosphere, loaded with intimacy. «Despite his continuous and anxious questions, Iris seems not to know how to complain. He never knew.
‘Choice Iris’ goes beyond tribute: Bayley strives to decipher a complex woman. Try to approach stadiums inside, to which you will no longer have access, and explore the enigma of your creative process. “I was always intrigued by the functioning of the creative mind of Iris,” confesses Bayley, who combined writing with the teaching of literature. Murdoch didn’t care too much about ‘cultured’ literature; He preferred to hold on to “simple popular flavor stories.” Every narration, she said, should have something for everyone. That’s why we continue reading it.
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