Such an underrated author, not many besides her and Camus can communicate their philosophy so clearly through fiction

I know nothing about her, which book do you recommend to start with?

If I understand the author of this blog correctly, their reading of Murdoch leads to the following observations:

1. Being good to the other is a matter of identifying, disabling and removing one's own ego in the relationship.
2. In the relationship with an inanimate object, the object itself loses nothing if you fail to disable your ego. The loss is yours, probably due to epistemic vices resulting from your ego deflecting correct reflection regarding the object.
3. In the case of an animate object, a person, animal or group, the harm imposed by the involvement of your ego is felt by them.
4. The last assumes that without the ego, the remainder of your desire is to benefit the other. This would assume learning correctly what they need and desire and then spending the energy to implement the benefit. Your ego would lead to both epistemic vices in learning about the person and to decision making that would be influenced by your own needs rather than theirs.

Not just her fiction. In particular The Sovereignty of Good, and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals are both gems.

It’s her most famous work and in some ways a difficult read, but “The Sea, The Sea” got me started. Also enjoyed “The Bell” and “Under The Net” for her distinctive narrative voice. I feel like I write smarter when reading Murdoch (Philip Roth has a similar effect on me). The way they rationalize things is just so damn logical

So if your doing it to make yourself fell good its for the wrong reason. The humility aspect is an eye opener like learning another language admitting we know nothing.

I’ve only read Under the Net, and to my great disappointment I found it pretty terrible. A few shallow bits of Wittgenstein strewn into a boring and poorly written story. I really wanted to like this but it was a struggle to finish. I kept telling myself this is going to pay off, but it never did.

I’ve been binge reading her. In addition to these, The Unicorn is wonderful

The Sea, The Sea is fantastic of course, but I actually started with The Bell and almost find myself preferring it. It’s shorter too, which makes it a good entry into an unknown author.

The Philosophers Pupil is a personal favorite

The Black Prince is my favorite. But I like the rest of them as well.

As someone who didn’t love Under the Net - The Sea, The Sea and A Severed Head are some of my favorite books of all time. I would recommend giving her another go.

I think I'd recommend The Bell too.

I don't know which communicates her philosophy more clearly though; I liked both books but I've really no idea what they were saying philosophically.

Thanks for that! I’ll take a look at those two.

I'm always surprised to see Under the Net thrown around as her most well-known and most recommended book.

I think you'll get a better sense of her style and voice from the other books.