Never Mind About The Bourgeoisie

Never Mind about the Bourgeoisie: The Correspondence Between Iris Murdoch and Brian Medlin 1976-1995

Ok, this is a book of letters between English author Iris Murdoch and Brian Medlin, the late professor of philosophy at Flinders University. They met when Medlin was a research fellow with Murdoch’s husband, John Bayley, at New College, Oxford. Murdoch and Bayley stayed with Medlin during a visit to Australia six years later, in 1967. Those were the only times they came face to face; but they wrote to each other with great warmth for nineteen years, or so the blurb says.

I first read about it in a glowing review in the Melbourne Age newspaper soon after it was published. It was very pricey ($150) so it took me a while to order it. I eventually got it from Readings Bookshop in late 2016 and gradually plowed through it. 

What a disappointment. Medlin is indeed a very unlikeable character, based on the bombastic, self opinionated and quite boorish letters he writes. When he isn't grumbling about something or criticising someone or something, he is boring us all about his great knowledge of the Australian bush. As for Murdoch, she comes across as about as interesting as a wet rag, never revealing anything of herself in her letters and normally just answering Medlin's tomes in very simple form. Hard to believe she was an author!

Not recommended for anyone. I don't know why the editors thought this a good read and I can't understand why the publishers bothered to publish it (ok, they got paid to do it).

My only concern now is - what do I do with the book. It is too small to use as a bookmark. Perhaps I can onsell it via ebay to some other poor unsuspecting fool.