"Something Special" is the only published short story by Iris Murdoch. It first appeared in 1957 in a collection entitled ''Winter's Tales 3'', and after inclusion in anthologies in Japan (1971, 1972), England (1979) and Finland (1990) it was republished separately by

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

in 1999. Yvonne Geary, the 24-year-old daughter of a Dublin shopkeeper, is courted by a young Jewish man, Sam Goldman, who takes her out for the night. After an unpleasant scene at a rowdy public house Sam decides to take Yvonne into his confidence.

Publication history

*1957: ''Winter's Tales 3,'' pp175–204. Macmillan, London. St Martin's Press, New York. *1971: ''Murdoch, Spark and Bowen,'' pp1–29. ed. Hisayasu Hirukawa. Eichosha, Tokyo. *1972: ''Modern English Stories,'' pp286–303. Shueisa, Tokyo. *1979: ''Women Writing: an Anthology,'' pp1–19. ed. Denys Val Baker. W H Allen, London. *1979: ''Best for Winter: a Selection from 25 Years of Winter's Tales,'' pp46–59. ed. A D Maclean. Macmillan, London. *1990: ''Something Special: Four Poems and a Story.'' Eurographica, Helsinki. *1999: ''Something Special.'' Chatto & Windus, London.

References

*John Fletcher, Cheryl Bove. ''Iris Murdoch: a descriptive primary and annotated secondary bibliography.'' Garland Publishing, New York, 1994. Short stories by Iris Murdoch 1957 short stories Chatto & Windus books 1999 books {{1950s-story-stub