A Severed Head is a satirical, sometimes farcical 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch.
Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilized and educated people. Set in and around London, it depicts a power struggle between grown-up middle class people who are lucky to be free of real problems. A Severed Head was a harbinger of the Sexual Revolution that was to hit Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.
Read more about A Severed Head: Plot Summary, In-depth Summary, Themes, Adaptations
Famous quotes containing the word severed:
“It was your severed image that grew sweeter,
That floated, wing-stiff, focused in the sun
Along uncertainty and gales of shame
Blown out before I slept. Now you are one
I dare not think alive: only a name
That chimes occasionally, as a belief
Long since embedded in the static past.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)