Reviews

What an absolutely fascinating read. This is definitely the sort of book that I wish I could read in the context of an English seminar or something, where I could have a discussion led by a professor to dig into everything and provide context about the story. One thing that really stood out to me is that for a story that was written nearly 60 years ago, I found the characters and their struggles surprisingly relatable. Which I suppose in some ways feels like a silly thing to say, since people are people across all time periods, but it felt like a really interesting tension between how much has changed since 1958 and how much could have been written today. I really didn't know anything about this book before getting started with it and I assumed it would mostly focus on Dora, so I was pleasantly surprised when it started branching out into deep POVs with the other main characters of the story. It felt like a precursor to one of my favorite genres of books, "slow moving character studies", until about 70% of the way through where everything all came together very quickly and chaotically. There was one chapter at that point where I swear I heard yakkety sax playing in my head as the comedy (tragedy?) of errors all played out in very rapid succession. The ending left me feeling very reflective. My book club read this a long time before I joined, but I really wish I had been somehow been present for the conversation about it because I just want to TALK to people about what the heck happened in this book.

beq3's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A weirdly uncomfortable read. You are pulled back and forth, liking and disliking the characters, horrified by them, sorry for them, willing them to do better, understanding when they don't. People are really sometimes impenetrable, they don't understand themselves and growth is hard.

Even the landscape is difficult people walk down lanes, and through gates, find doorways in the wall and plunge into the water. The landscape is endlessly described but I could never visualise it clearly. I think now this is probably deliberate as it adds a lot to the unsettling atmosphere of the book and increases your sense of these being people who are in some way lost.

An excellent read, but quite challenging. One of those books that you find yourself puzzling over afterwards.

Content Warnings

carnationlilyrose's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

baellamy's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I read this as part of a book club I’ve joined.

The book’s main plots are religion, innocence, (mlm) love, and virtue. It’s set within a country estate that acts as an Anglican lay religious community attached to a Benedictine nunnery. The novel does not actually tell the story of the nuns, but instead focuses on separate “outsiders” that visit the commune over a 1950s summer.

The Bell was definitely character driven, rather than plot driven and Murdoch evidently gave the characters room to breathe through the pages and fully dragged you into the minds of the individual characters.

It was an interesting read and the philosophy aspect gave me much to think about afterwards. This felt like a book that would have been good to study during high school.

casparb's review

Go to review page

maybe this cover overdoes the scariness of the nun. anyway
iris is an extraordinarily talented novelist I loved The Sea, The Sea when I read that a few years ago with its odd odysseyan ringing but oddly never got round to anything other of hers ,, until this! Which is also fantastically ! plotted & paced and just one of Those Read This Now to learn these things.
it's another novel where much would be sorted out if she'd simply, justifiably, LEft Him in chapt. 1

have a feeling! there are academic wars over the depiction of the gay priest.

ifigeneiatsa's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have mixed feelings about this novel. I was very intrigued in the beginning and eager to see how the story unfolds, but halfway through it got a bit redundant. I was struggling to finish it by the end. The story is incredibly slow without any major points of interest and I found the end quite rushed and not properly explained. It reminded me of a 'where they are now' segment in a film. I also got tired at some point of all the descriptions of Imber Court. I found them all quite the same and unnecessary for the moving of the plot. Additionally, I thought I was going to like Dora more, but I found her quite annoying, and impulsive and she could not make up her mind. I liked though that she is the only one in the end who is looking forward to her new life. I did not get the whole witch thing with her. To me, her behaviour was not that extreme. Michael is also portrayed as a complete saint, which is not the truth at all. Overall, I thought I was going to like this more than I did, which left me quite disappointed.

Quote: "Remember that all our failures are ultimately failures in love. Imperfect love must not be condemned and rejected but made perfect. The way is always forward, never back.”

rshakes97's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

More...