Under the Net

Iris Murdoch's first novel. Published in 1954 and set in London, it is the story of a struggling young writer, Jake Donaghue. Its mixture of the philosophical and the picaresque has made it one of Murdoch's most popular. In 2005, TIME magazine chose this novel as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. Modern Library named Under the Net one of the greatest 20th century English-language novels.