【正文】
observations of 20thcentury life among middleclass professionals are interwoven with extraordinary incidents that partake of the macabre, the grotesque, and the wildly ic. The novels illustrate Murdoch39。s conviction that although human beings think they are free to exercise rational control over their lives and behaviour, they are actually at the mercy of the unconscious mind, the determining effects of society at large, and other, more inhuman, forces. In addition to producing novels, Murdoch wrote plays, verse, and works of philosophy and literary criticism.