Something Special: A Story

by Iris Murdoch, Michael McCurdy (Illustrator)

Set in Dublin in the 1950s, this haunting, previously unpublished story follows Yvonne, a young Irish woman, who becomes convinced that there is more to life than marriage to Sam, the dutiful Jewish young man who is courting her, in a beautifully illustrated tale of love and repression. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Ireland, British Literature, 20th Century, Irish Literature, Classics

55 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Dame Jean Iris Murdoch

Irish-born British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.

"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bayley in Elegy for Iris, 1998)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Mur...

Reviews

[Cecily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Iris Murdoch and her Machiavellian, and often despicable, characters. I’ve already reviewed 13 of her books on GR, averaging just over 4* HERE.

I was thrilled to spot this amuse-bouche in my first foray into a second-hand bookshop after more than 4 months of lockdown. Her only published short story!

Unfortunately, it’s an unsatisfying tale of a single evening, about unlikeable people, with odd attitudes to Jews, illustrated with rather creepy woodcuts.

The blurb says it’s about a “bold” Irish woman, and that’s plain from the first impression, before she says a word:
“Yvonne sat astride a chair.”

She’s 24, and they’re quite poor, so her mother and uncle want her to marry Sam, who’s courting her, whereas she wants to wait for love, and maybe to travel.
“Doesn’t every Irish person with a soul in them want to go to England?”

The uncle blames her unrealistic dreams on reading:
“It’s the woman’s magazines… and the little novels she’s forever reading that put ideas in her head.”

The family explicitly don’t mind that Sam is Jewish, and yet they talk about “those ones” (Jews) and the tricks they use to entice girls to marry them, Murdoch mentions his “fugitive hands”, and he’s always illustrated with a stereotypical hooked nose.


Image: Sam and Yvonne, by Michael McCurdy

Anyway, Yvonne and Sam go out for the evening.
“Yvonne threw her head back, and pranced along in her high-heeled shoes, wearing the look of petulant intensity which she always affected for the benefit of Sam.”

She’s wilful, unappreciative, and outright rude. As she’s apparently not pretty or moneyed either, I felt sorry for Sam. Until I didn’t.

The ending made no sense at all.

[Jean Ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ayer por la noche me puse a leer este libro. Cuando quise darme cuenta ya casi lo había acabado. Contra mis suposiciones iniciales, resulta que no es una novela corta, es un relato. El único que Iris Murdoch escribió y, a juzgar por la extensión de sus novelas, está claro que no es su formato narrativo preferido. Aún y así, resulta interesante, razonablemente interesante.

Trata sobre los peligros de los bares irlandeses (ya explicados en el Ulises de Joyce), la ansiedad social, sentirse atrapado en la vida, la confrontación entre el matrimonio tradicional y el matrimonio moderno, lo limitado de los paseos nocturnos por Dublín y las ilusiones perdidas.

Ella tiene veintitantos años y vive con su familia, lo que le hace sentirse fatal porque está claro que es gente entrometida e impertinente.

Él es judío y tiene alma de poeta.

Del choque de estas dos visiones surge el relato, una pequeña pieza melancólica sobre las historias de gentes comunes.

No ha estado mal. Ofrece una emoción trémula y sin embargo bien urdida. Buen conocimiento del alma humana. Tenía claro que no es la mejor puerta de entrada a la obra de Iris Murdoch, es como comenzar un juego en nivel fácil, pero quería algo breve y este libro se me apareció como solución.

Misión cumplida. Seguimos.

[Connie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yvonne is being pressured to marry Sam by her mother who tells her she is getting old at age 24. Her uncle worries that he might have to support her if she does not find a groom. Sam is dependable and devoted. Yvonne comes from a poor area in 1950s Dublin, but she yearns for romance, travel, and fun. She finally faces the reality of her situation in a surprising ending.

[Jean-Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sensible people marry because they want to be in the married state and not because of feelings they have in their breasts.

If this is the lesson to be learned then Yvonne Geary, the protagonist of Iris Murdoch's only published short story, learns it rather abruptly, with much left open to interpretation. Had this been one of Murdoch's novels, we would have known exactly what Yvonne was thinking during ten, maybe fifteen, apparently very pivotal minutes. But alas. Who's got a ouija board, or a psychic medium for a relative? Are you there, Iris? I just have one question--

[TK421 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, really. A poignant story that questions why is it that we fall in love? While the sobriety of this story is lackluster and not overly entertaining, the undercurrent of what a person desires from courtship is accurately depicted. Sadly, love does not have to be this way but often is. My advice: Look at your significant other and remember what it was that hooked you, that made you feel as if life was insignificant without them, rejoice the fact that only they could fill a void with their presence.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confession: I'm way behind on my reading goal so I go to the library and find the thinnest books and read them, even if it seems it will kill me.
This one took me 35 minutes so maybe that is why I missed all the underlying stuff that the description says is going on...a crotchety old maid (at 24!) is being pushed to marry a creepy, ugly guy and she doesn't seem to be able to stand him. Basically, the book is the story of one of their "dates" and it is weird AF.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘I hate your fucking tree, but I’ll marry you I guess fml ugh’
You could read this or not read it. Kinda doesn’t matter.

[Mamen Monsoriu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un relato genial. Trata tantos temas en pocas páginas. Fabuloso. Ganas de seguir navegando por Murdochland

[Vipassana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A portrait of what it was like to be a young and curious women whose life is limited by poverty and being too old to be single. The first third was so bad that I might have given this two stars but it got better and the illustrations have a spooky beauty to them.

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

A random pick at an hour of need in the library and my first Iris Murdoch.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I think it needed a few more pages, a bit more depth.

[p33€3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

amor no encontrado, tristeza familiar, pocas libertades y acomodamiento más por obligación que por otra cosa

tocará leer el mar el mar?

[Eli Dhios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un relato/novela corta que me hizo acordar a la película Antes del amanecer. Situada en Irlanda alrededor de 1957, narra la historia de Yvonne que trabaja con su madre y tiene 24 años pero no tiene deseos de casarse, algo que se le reprocha porque tiene un candidato, Sam.

En algunas hojas vamos a seguir una salida nocturna entre Yvonne y Sam, donde caminan y van a algunos lugares. Es sencillo, pero lo que nos deja al final es una reflexión sobre el deseo vs la realidad, algo que sucede en Antes del amanecer cuando dos chicos se conocen y planean desde el deseo pero vemos después que la realidad se les atraviesa. Me gustaría leer más de la autora, muy lindo.

[Eric Bruen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mind comes back to this tiny book, this short story, again and again. I forget the names but not the smells, textures and angst. Crisp paper cards in the shop with the feeling of anticipation and doubt, sour acrid beer and cigarette stench of a pub, heavy, earthy odor of geraniums and the soil they were ripped out of, all leading to the rich damp mossy bark of the beautiful fallen tree. (Obviously I lack the eloquence of Ms Murdoch and it's been too long to pull any quotes from my rum-soaked brain).

My mind goes back to Dublin, where I grew up, again and again. The sensory triggers and memories are different, the time is different. (Iris was my Nana's age.) But there's a bittersweet connection.

Iris gives us a slice of life here, it's not perfect, the beauty isn't always obvious, but it's special. It's certainly complicated. It's life and it's short.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty terrible really. Disliked the main female character, thought her parents and would-be husband were annoying too. Nothing happens and even if it had, I probably wouldn't have cared

[Ben Haines]

Stay strong annoying girl

[holly gc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A portrait of the conflicting desires of youth: fantastical novel-like lives versus practical living. It fails, however, to grasp a reality of the family and an imagination of the heroine.

The story focuses on a girl, Yvonne, who is supposed to be ‘bold’ but is arguably a flimsy, self-centred character. She is a weaker version of Lizzie Bennet and yes, realistic characters are needed but Yvonne felt inconsistent. It hastily attributed to her a withering + stereotypical head-in-books-never-going-to-marry type persona and left it there. But perhaps the little development of the character comes from the compression of the short story form. Nevertheless, Mansfield’s short stories were tightly compressed yet they conveyed a huge wash of emotion and soul.

HOWEVER I did take some sharp messages from the book and liked murdoch’s accurate descriptions. Resonant themes were: discontent, surrender to patriarchy, and coercion.

[julucha · Rating 3 out of 5]

[1957] Único relato corto de la celebrada irlandesa Irish Murdoch que te coge de la mano y te da un paseo vertiginoso por una noche de unos novios y es extraño que una noche donde “no pasa nada” definitivamente marque la vida futura de ambos. Me voy a ir a por sus grandes obras pero a la de ya. Como Morrisey: Irish blood, english heart.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the writing and poignancy but wondering if this short story needed just a bit more length. Then again, isn't that the point of a short story, to leave the reader to figure out the ending.

[mishu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Si no fuera por el posfacio no entendía nada. Y aunque me haya gustado su concepto cuando lo terminé siento que no estuvo bien ejecutado o hasta podría haber habido más para un mejor cierre.

[Agustina de Diego · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es la primera vez que leo a esta autora y hasta ahora la primera impresión es muy buena. El libro es un cuento (su único relato escrito)que relata la historia de una chica que duda si contraer o no matrimonio pronto con un candidato.

Hay una salida, suceden cosas, una en particular que involucra un árbol y me pareció lo mejor del relato. Pero sin duda, el posfacio final de la editora y traductora Pilar Adón suma muchísimo y completa una imagen recortada que se nos proporciona normalmente cuando leemos un cuento suelto y que nos confirma el tono simbólico y alegórico de lo que leímos.

Ahora me gustaría saber por dónde sigo leyendo a esta autora.

[Monica abarca melo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que corto pero profundo relato, deja una sensación de tristeza y abandono.

[Yasmin M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I couldn’t believe that Iris Murdoch has written it, but I was able to get lost in it for a good one hour. I loved the themes.

[Marisú · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buen ritmo.

[Bailey Duryea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, short story whose message may not be agreeable, but is deftly delivered.

This is a straightforward story, so I wonder, looking at other reviews, why the ending leaves some confused or disappointed. This story is about a woman who wants there to be more to life than marrying the unremarkable man with whom her life will consist of the same droll walk to watch the same boat sail away without her. Yet in the end, she chooses to be with him. Her reason is "a sad thing" as she calls it. This "sad thing" is a fallen tree which her suitor shows her after one spectacularly awful night in the rough-and-tumble of the lively world that exists just on the outskirts of her own. He shows this tree to her, calling it beautiful, believing that yes, it may be rotting, but they can still be two birds and nest in it and live a beautiful life. As such, to him it is symbolic of their situation. To our leading lady Yvonne, however, it is a symbol of herself. I think this is what a lot of people miss, as the story moves briskly from the climactic tree scene to Yvonne's change in conviction. But she sees the tree as her future self, fallen in her prime, beauty no longer able to grow and prosper, only to from this point forward fade. How tragic and sad it is for a beautiful tree to die and be eaten by beetles and worms? How many would still admire its leaves and branches? Its prospects, and Yvonne's, are diminishing with each day. Yet here is a man who still finds that rotting tree beautiful, and maybe, if she marries him, she won't suffer the same fate and be eaten by maggots. As her mother says early in the story, "Sensible people marry because they want to be in the married state," and it is this very attitude she adopts after confronting the sad reality of being a fallen tree, a putrefying corpse, decomposing alone, old, unmarried, unloved. Do I personally agree with this attitude on love? Not at all; one can live a fulfilling and happy life as a bachelor or bachelorette. But is the merit of a story its perspective, or its ability to communicate that perspective, to share a window into the mind of another human being and so participate in that rare, uniquely human experience of building a shared consciousness? This is a good, solid, well-told story. I give it three stars not for lack of well-crafted storytelling, but for how linear and uneventful it all is. It feels like little happens, and perhaps that is why others have this feeling Yvonne's change in conviction is abrupt--even for a short story, there is no journey, only a brief ride on a tram. And considering the length, that's the appropriate place to read it also.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can a work less than 60 *small* pages be called a book? "Something Special" makes a good case for just that, and what I loved about this book is how Murdoch uses dialog to create character - I've no clue if this book 'authentically' evokes mid-20 century Dublin, Ireland - but I felt as if I were eavesdropping - so it was all rather convincing.

[Mary Ahlgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Depressing story, perfectly told.

[GalicianFee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5⭐

[Rut Vidal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un relat amb la llavor de temes recurrents en l'obra de Murdoch.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!!

[Lucrecia murmullo_de_ letras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siglo XX.
Década del 50.
Dublín, Irlanda.

Yvonne Geary tiene 24 años, vive con su madre, y la inmediatez le ofrece como germen de futuro un posible matrimonio con Sam, un joven que la ama.

Pero a Yvonne, Sam, no le parece nada del otro mundo.

Entonces cae la noche.
Una única noche que se dueña del relato, que se siente como rito de pasaje, cargada de detalles simbólicos, de malos presagios, de la más desesperanzadora oscuridad.

En esa noche, como antes, como luego, Yvonne espera, anhela, con fuerza, con desesperación, ... algo del otro mundo.

Ojalá se animen a entrar al universo de Iris Murdoch a través de esta obra breve, brevísima, que habla de una sola mujer y permite entender generaciones enteras.