First published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus 1964. First published in the USA by The Viking Press 1964. Published in Penguin Books 1967. Reprinted 11 times. 11th reprint. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England : Penguin Books 1967/1987. Paperback, 171 pages.
Cover illustration by Roy Knipe.

From a book swap shelf. Some previous owner has read the book with a pen in their hand — and underlined a lot.

The blurb:
THE ITALIAN GIRL
Edmund has escaped from his family into a lonely life
Returning for his mother's funeral he finds himself involved in the old, awful problems together with some new ones. He als re-discovers the eternal family servant, the ever-changing Italian girl, who was always 'a second mother'. . .
This particular return to mother holds some surprises for Edmund.
'The best British woman writing today' — Daily Telegraph

About the author:
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin of Anglo-Irish parents. She went to Badminton School, Bristol, and read classics at Somerville College, Oxford. During the war she was with U.N.R.R.A. in London, Belgium and Austria. She held a studentship in Philosophy at Newham College, Cambridge, for a year, and in 1948 returned to Oxford where she became a Fellow of St Anne's College. In 1956 she married John Bayley, teacher and critic. She was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1975 and was awarded the C. B. E. in the 1987 New Year's Honours List.
Her other novels are Under the Net (1954), The Fight from the Enchanter (1955), The Sandcastle (1957), The Bell (1958), A Severed Head (1961), An Unofficial Rose (1962), The Unicorn (1963), The Red and the Green (1965), The Time of the Angels (1966), The Nice and the Good (1968), Bruno's Dream (1969), A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970), An Accidental Man (1971), The Black Prince (1973), winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974), winner of the Whitbread Prize, A Word Child (1975), Henry and Cato (1976), The Sea, the Sea (1978), for which she won the Booker Prize, Nuns and Soldiers (1980), The Philosopher's Pupil (1983) and The Good Apprentice, which was shortlisted for the 1985 Booker Prize. She has also written The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artist (1977), based on her 1976 Romanes ectures. A Year of Birds (1978), a volume of poetry, and Acastos (1986).


Iris Murdoch (1919—1999) at Pegasos — A literature related site in Finland
Iris Murdoch at Wikipedia

The Italian Girl was my # 2 February One book a month and won by Arvores. It is on its way to Portugal now.
Congrats, Arvores, and happy reading! Hyviä lukuhetkiä! :)

It has arrived. Quite fast, I must say. This Italian girl must have driven a Ferrari :-)

Thank you so much for sharing and for the beautiful bookmark and card.

Kiitos :-)