few passing references to “the twilightnof authority” and “the crisis of legitimacy,”nhe does not press the point. Thenroots of the pervasive crisis are buriednSalvation by, of & for the SelfnMary Gordon: The Company ofnWomen; Random House; New York.nIris Murdoch: Nuns and Soldiers;nViking Press; New York.nby Stephen L. Tannern-/ he Company of Women is MarynGordon’s second novel. Her first, finalnPayments, was a popular success andnreceived high praise from reviewers.nWith this second novel, she adds to hernreputation-as an important young novelistnof Roman Catholic manners andnmores.nThe novel explores the situation of angirl, Felicitas, growing up among adultsn—five husbandless middle-aged Catholicnwomen clustered about a priest—nwho see her as their hope for the future.n”She will be the comfort of our oldnage,” says Father Cyprian, the spiritualnadvisor for Felicitas’s widowed mothernand her four friends: “She will embodynwhat we stand for in the world when wenare dead.” What Cyprian stands for is anfierce Catholic orthodoxy and reactionarynsocial and political views.nBeing the center of this group’s lovenand attention prevents Felicitas fromnhaving friends her own age and learningnwhat those associations teach. She isnrobbed of her childhood. By the timenshe reaches college, she is ripe for rebellionnand so eager to be accepted bynthe world outside her peculiar familynthat she takes up with Robert, a radicalnpolitical-science teacher at Columbia,nand joins him in an urban commune.nThe time is 1969. Robert, who hatesnDr. Tanner is professor of English atnBrigham Young University.n8 ^^^^HldiifnChronicles of Culturenin the political phenomena so well describednin Hodgson’s book. It’s too badnhe didn’t spend more time trying to dignthem out. Dnrespectability and a narrow moral sense,nseeks “a revolution of consciousness.”nHe despises his privileged childhoodnand wishes he had been born a womann—a black woman. Failing that, he wouldnprefer to have been “born Third World.”nAs a reverse parallel to Cyprian, Robertnis the center of admiration of thenwomen in the commune, including Felicitasnwho falls slavishly in love withnhim. He tells her he is going to liberatenher emotions and destroy her repressions.nShe, of course, is simply fleeingnfrom one dominant male authority tonanother, from one end of the religiouspoliticalnspectrum to the other. She endsnup deserted and pregnant.nAfter flirting with the possibility ofn.M;ir (rt’iLliinl wiiiis like a dream.nan abortion, she returns to her mothernand her Catholic friends and becomesnreconciled to their love. She has demonstratednher independence and can nownaccept them on her own terms. Shenmarries a slow-witted but safe husbandnand attends to the business of rearingnher daughter, self-consciously tryingnto assure that the child has normalnchildhood experiences. She has no spiritualnlife but is reconciled with Cypriannand reveres him “for his labor, for hisnpassionate, excluding love, for the dignitynof his priestly calling he wears withnhim everywhere: the habit of his grand,nimpossible life.” Cyprian, for his part,nmellows a little before death and evennprays for the ordination of women (thenrefusal to ordain women is what upsetsnMs. Gordon most about the CatholicnChurch).nnnThe heroines of both of Ms. Gordon’snnovels have been damaged in somenway by male authority. This is a reflectionnof her feminism, which is as importantnan element in her writing asnCatholicism. She has said that one ofnthe things that most interested her innwriting The Company of Women “isnfemale powerlessness in relation tonmale power, the phenomenon of womennwho are very powerful with each othernand very powerful in their own livesnand powerful in their outside accomplishments,nbut who will suddenlynbuckle to the authority of a male mentor,nwhether it’s a priest or professor or anlover.” Near the end of the novel, Felicitas,nwho has been victimized by priest,nprofessor and lover, says, “I wondernwhat abuse a woman has to go throughnat the hands of a man before she givesnup the inward flicker of delight, likenthe click and flame of a cheap cigarettenlighter, at being chosen.” Where did wenlearn that definition of honor.’ As longnas it is there, we are never really independent.”n-Ms.nJfor Iris Murdoch, that “flicker ofndelight” on the part of women, and menntoo for that matter, makes the worldngo around—“that unmistakable seismicnshock, that total concentration of everythingninto one necessary being, mysterious,nuncanny, unique, one of thenstrangest phenomena in the world.”nShe even makes this intense inexplicablenmutual attraction of carnal beings anbasis for moral regeneration.nNuns and Soldiers is Iris Murdoch’sntwentieth novel. She is one of the bestnand most successful contemporarynBritish authors. She puzzles critics,nhowever, by being so prolific (20 novelsnin 25 years) and by treating some ofnthe standard themes and situations ofnpopular fiction. Is she a serious novelistntreating the subjects of Gothic and pop-n