El unicornio

Por Iris Murdoch

Una historia que combina con magistral eficacia la intensidad de la novela gótica y la fascinación del cuento de hadas. Una novela impresionante en la que Iris Murdoch explora las fantasías e indecisiones que gobiernan a todos aquellos que han sido condenados a una entrega apasionada, aunque sin esperanza.Cuando Marian Taylor acepta un empleo de institutriz en el castillo de Gaze y llega a ese remoto lugar situado en medio de un paisaje terriblemente hermoso y desolado, no imagina que allí encontrará un mundo en que el misterio y lo sobrenatural parecen precipitar una atmósfera de catástrofe que envuelve la extraña mansión, y nimba con una luz de irrealidad las figuras del drama que en ella se está representando. Hannah, una criatura pura y fascinante, es el personaje principal de ese pequeño círculo de familiares y sirvientes que se mueven en torno a ella como guiados hacia un desenlace imprevisible. Pero Marian no puede saber si ese divino ser es en realidad una víctima inocente o si estará expiando algún antiguo crimen.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Impedimenta
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 1 feb 2015
• ISBN: 9788415979494

Iris Murdoch

Dame Jean Iris Murdoch nació en Dublín en 1919, aunque con semanas sus padres se trasladaron a Londres. Estudió en el Somerville College, de Oxford. En Cambridge tuvo como maestro a Wittgenstein. Escribió su primera novela, «Bajo la red», en 1954 (Impedimenta, 2018). Autora tremendamente prolífica, Impedimenta ha publicado también Una cabeza cercenada (1961), El unicornio (1963) y Henry y Cato (1976), Monjas y soldados (1980) y El libro y la hermandad (1987). Falleció a los 79 años, en 1999, y sus cenizas fueron esparcidas por el jardín del crematorio de Oxford.

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Comentarios para El unicornio

[janeajones · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Murdoch's The Unicorn (1963) plays with a variety of genres and situations to examine individual choices -- both moral and amoral. It begins as a Gothic novel with a young governess being brought to an isolated mansion -- her charge is not a child but an enigmatic woman who may or may not be a murderer, who may or may be a persecuted victim, but who lures into her enchanted net those with whom she comes into contact. I'm not sure the novel is fully realized, but it is intriguing, and the spell of the novel lingers in the reader who engages in the quest.

[librarycin · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

When Marian heads out to Gaze Castle to work, she assumes she will be teaching children. When she arrives, however, she finds that she is going to be a companion to the young woman of the household, Hannah. Marian quickly sees that there is something very odd going on at the castle. The start of the book actually really drew me in. It felt a bit creepy, kind of gothic, and I was curious to find out what was going on. But, the execution of the book fell a little flat for me. I think I wasn't as interested when we switched viewpoints at times to a neighbour, Effingham. I definitely didn't find him as interesting, but even with Marian, there were parts that just didn't hold my attention as much in the middle of the book. The end got a little more interesting again, but not enough to bring my rating up from “ok” to “good”. The book remains at 3 stars, “ok”, for me.

[vlcraven_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Atmospheric verging on suffocating. The story is of a woman who is in self-imposed exile after an accident where she then fled to New York. In a nameless, solitary environment the relationships between the characters are incestuous and complicated. I felt Murdoch was exploring psychological territory that I wasn’t quite understanding though the novel got under my skin anyway.

[thorold_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Two or three years ago there was a craze for Jane Austen novels with interpolated monsters. This is the same thing the other way round: a Brontë novel with Land Rovers and Austin Sevens popping up in the margins. A young woman answers an advertisement for a governess at a remote Irish castle, but it's the 1960s, not the 1840s. And what's more, she finds that she's been hired to teach Mrs Rochester, not Adèle. Obviously, Murdoch is having her little joke at the reader's expense, but this isn't just a spoof gothic novel: at least some of the fear and trembling goes with real existential concerns that we are supposed to take seriously, discussions about good and evil, guilt, free will and all the rest. I found it rather tough to keep track of the philosophy in the midst of the ludicrously over-busy plot: it's probably a book you should read twice to get the best out of it. First time through, you're always getting sidetracked into taking the story seriously.

[wirkman_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Though I've read this several times, I'm afraid I didn't "get" it. But I did enjoy it! Murdoch was defining her own form, still, and her later novels don't have quite the same feel as this one does, even though it has a characteristic opening, with unattributed dialogue . . . and no, that's not annoying!

[lenoreva · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A fine example of the neo-gothic genre in which the 1st 2/3rds are great - very foreboding, but the climax wanders too much into soap opera territory.

[Javier G. · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Todavía no lo termino, acabo de leer la segunda parte. Y considero que la pluma de Murdoch es singular, repartida entre un buen manejo de las descripciones con un uso adecuado principalmente de los adjetivos, pero también de los adverbios, y un desarrollo para nada cansado de la psicología de los personajes. El papel del lugar o del espacio, por lo menos en esta obra, ocupa un papel protagónico en esta obra, lo cual es de agradecer. Ya que los personajes, el lugar, se relacionan mutuamente hasta iluminar la totalidad del mundo de Gaze.

[motorbike_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I love LibraryThing to read what other ordinary people think, but for the first time I find that other readers' comments about Iris Murdoch's The Unicorn have not resonated with me at all. The narrative has a strong "manufactured" feel about it which immediately undermines any value it may generate. A lot of readers focus on its Gothic characteristics, which says nothing about the story, its message and its ideas. For me its the religious angle that defines this book and allows you to make any sense of the story. The title says it all - the unicorn's allegorical meanings is both that of the beguiled lovers and that of the Christ figure - a mix of pagan and christian elements. Ultimately the book is about redemption.Marian, a strongly independent 30-yr old single woman from London, sensing her boyfriend is just not that into her and unlikely to lead to marriage, takes on the job of a governess at a remote mansion. When she gets there, effectively cut off from the rest of the world, she discovers there are no children and that she is to be the companion of the mistress of the household, Hannah, a woman only a few years older than herself, and abandoned by her husband. The arrangements in the household seem very odd and Marian quickly understands that Hannah is being kept here like a prisoner and the household staff are her gaolers. What is more unnerving is that Hannah appears to accept her circumstances. The story unfolds with Marian learning more of the circumstances that have led to the current arrangements and the personalities and the relationships between the household staff and the only neighbour in the district. An attempt to rescue Hannah from her predicament fails and triggers the sequence of events that lead to the dramatic conclusion of the story.The story only serves as the vehicle to explore the themes of sexuality and the role of Christ. Basic urges create a diverse range of relationships and outcomes with which the characters have been forced to deal with varying degrees of success and varying implications for others involved, resulting in seemingly impossible circumstances to resolve. The Gothic genre is great to convey these two themes and a lot of Classical and Shakespearean references are made to emphasize other traits. Hannah, seemingly the most confined of all the characters, willingly bearing her confinement, acts like the redeemer of those around her, releasing them from the chains of their past actions to allow them to live again. Although the book was easy to read it was not a satisfying one.