A storm rages round the towers of the big house near Geneva. Behind the locked doors of the library, the Baron, the Baroness and their handsome young secretary are not to be disturbed. In the attic, the Baron's lunatic brother howls and hurls plates at his keeper.But in the staff quarters, all is...
Score another point for the It's Not You, It's Me rating. In books as in life, I just can't get past certain character flaws. Miss Jean Brodie is the kind of teacher my high-school self would have gone positively apeshit over. Younger Me would have eaten up her determination to shirk the stiflin...
Spark, Muriel. THE MANDELBAUM GATE. (1965). ***. This is what we used to call a “novel of sensibilities.” Although religion plays a big role in it, it is not a religious novel; nor is it a political novel or a spy novel – although both potentially get worked into it. It is set in Israel in ...
Disclaimer: It has been quite a while since I've attempted a book review—not that anyone might have noticed—but if you should happen to stumble upon this particular review in the middle of the night or during one of your drunken internet adventures, please know that my critical faculties are rust...
I'm planning a trip to Scotland in the not-so-distant future and so I thought it would be a good time to familiarize myself with the work of Muriel Spark. I gather from the little I've read about Ms. Spark thus far that Aiding and Abetting is not one of her more “important” works, but as a slim v...
The embarrassing admission first: I read Muriel Spark's books because her name is close to my own. (I really hate it when people call me Muriel, though. I dislike being called Ariel only slightly less.) Other people might have heard of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie because of the famous film star...
In the cool, historic sanctuary of Nemi rests the spirit of Diana, the Benevolent-Malign Goddess whose priests once stalked the sacred grove. Now Hubert Mallindaine, self-styled descendent of the Italian huntress, has claimed spiritual rights to a villa at Nemi - a villa with a view to kill.
London, just after the second world war. Basic necessities are scarce, food and clothes are being rationed. Somewhere in the city there is an old residential building turned into a dormitory which was spared from the Nazi bombings. Here is found the May of Teck Club and its first of the Rules of...
The first thing I noticed when reading the book is that it is very much a character study of these dozen or so characters; you learn about their pasts, families, and present piece by piece, building up a clear picture of who these people are. You also know who is going to die at some point and ev...
Loitering with Intent is a delightful, effervescent sort of story, but hard to put your finger on. For one thing, (and here I'm generalizing on the basis of just two of her books) Spark is at once an extremely exacting author--with sharp observations about characters and situations and a really w...
Apparently London in the early 1960s was quite different than Manhattan in the twenty-teens, lousy with unattached men as it was. These bachelors are not particularly appealing, though, as they appear here to be even more prone to navel-gazing than the rest of us. Even the charms of a character n...
Nepotism is still I believe the order of the day. still relevant till today... sad to say.job hunting advice from mrs hawkin: When you are looking for a job the best thing to do is to tell everyone, high and humble, and keep reminding them please to look out for you. This advice is not guaranteed...
In The Abbess of Crewe we follow a group of nuns who find themselves at the centre of a media furore when it becomes known that the abbess and her senior nuns are secretly recording everything that goes on in the abbey. The abbess demands very high standards from her charges, making sure they obs...
Tom Richards was on top of the world.He was a film director, at the top of the highest, shouting orders through a megaphone and watching his world moving under his command.But something went wrong – a wheel moved when it shouldn’t – and he tumbled back to earth.He was no longer a god, he was just...
Perhaps the correct place to start this review is 75% into the text. This is where I gave up on the book. My eye had started skipping to the end of paragraphs and I realised that it was no longer holding my interest; it had defeated me. So I went off and read a few reviews to see what other peopl...
The only play by famed Scottish author Muriel Spark takes on the dilemmas of two intellectually ambitious women in 1960s England In a home overlooking London's Regent's Canal in the 1960s, two scholars debate the choices they have made with their lives. Catherine Delfont was one of the most prom...
Eventually, I fell asleep contented, filled with soundlessness, but while I was awake I enjoyed the experience of darkness, thought, memory, sweet anticipations. I heard the silence. It was in those days of the early ‘fifties of this century that I formed the habit of insomnia. Insomnia is not ba...
SAME ROOM. DAPHNE fixing tape recorder, MRS. S. watching. MRS. S. You got it working all right? DAPHNE. Yes. MRS. S. You better take it back before it does any more harm. What did you do with the talkative portion? DAPHNE. I put it in the stove. Have you got ten bob on you...
‘It is not,’ he explained to Violet on the telephone, ‘that I am responsible for Robert. I am not condemned to take care of him. Only the girls, I mean Katerina and Eufemia, say it’s their duty to inform the police, it’s the law and so on.’ ‘Has he got his passport with him?’ ‘Oh, yes. He always ...
As sure as anything, my dear, you are the person for my nephew. Somebody has got to take him on, anyhow, that’s plain.’ ‘He’s only twenty-four,’ considers Lise. ‘Much too young. They are descending a steep path leading from the ruins. Steps have been roughly cut out of the earthy track, outlined ...
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Hurley had been attending a session as adviser for a television play in which an artist was depicted. It was six in the evening. Annabel had just finished her day’s work. She was normally a documentary producer. They went to have a drink. ‘They are talking about this artist character’s retiring,’...
‘There’s a dirty swine in every man,’ he said. ‘Showing your face round here again,’ she said. ‘Now, Mavis, now, Mavis,’ he said. She was seen to slam the door in his face, and he to press the bell, and she to open the door a...
Rowland and Nina always arranged a large dinner party and dance for the students, friends and parents (at their willing expense), with school-prize givings part of the show. This year it was to be held at the nearby five-star hotel. Nina, knowing that the coming term would be full of normal work,...
??" } @font-face { font-family: Times } @font-face { font-family: Calibri } @font-face { font-family: Consolas } ONE He was driving along the road in France from St Dié to Nancy in the district of Meurthe; it was straight and almost white, through thick woods of fir and birch. He ...