At least during its very long first part, The Black Prince, ofIris Murdoch (Dublin, 1919-Oxford, 1999), suggests a reversal of the premise of Waiting for Godot of Samuel BeckettJust as Vladimir and Estrago spend the entire play without moving from where they are because they wait in vain for someone who never arrives, Bradley Pearson, the protagonist of Murdoch's novel, a retired tax inspector, an ambitious writer but full of quirks, complexes, and frustrations, spends more than three hundred pages wanting to escape—a teacher who has wanted to write for years, but can't leave because a chain of incidents involving friends and family prevents her. Godot No one ever arrives; here, on the other hand, everyone arrives. All of this gives the novel the feel and rhythm of a frenetic tragicomic vaudeville or a sophisticated farce, with constant comings and goings, dramatic situations handled with both seriousness and humor (domestic violence, adultery, suicide attempts or announcements, drunken binges). Murdoch is a virtuoso of profound and transcendent philosophical reflection as well as of comical and absurdist sensationalism, and she is even more virtuosic at combining them. She couldn't be more British.

In a book titled Ninety-nine novels. The best in English since 1939 (1984), Anthony Burgess defined this novel, first published in 1958, as "the synthesis between the traditional and the revolutionary." The structure of The bell It is traditional in style: well-prepared, it progresses in a straight chronological sense – everything happens over several days – without putting any obstacles in the way of the reader. It can even recall the plot outline of a Victorian novel, due to the rural setting, which seems inspired by a certain gothic realism, and the mixture of dramatic elements, of varied colouring, and comics, which are scarcer than the previous ones. What is revolutionary, rather, is the treatment of the characters, servants of moral themes that interested and occupied the author, also a renowned philosopher (and here I would like to take the opportunity to recommend the high-voltage conversation, recorded for the BBC in 1977, that Iris Murdoe had with the author). Philosophy & literature).