The Informed Air: Essays

by Muriel Spark

Together for the first time in one sparkling, delicious volume, here are the greatest essays of Muriel Spark A fantastic essayist, the inimitable Muriel Spark addresses here the writing life; love; cats; favorite writers (T. S. Eliot, Robert Burns, the Brontës, Mary Shelley); Piero della Francesca; life in wartime London and in glamorous “Hollywood-on-the-Tiber;” 1960s Rome; faith; and parties (on her first New Year’s Eve, as a baby sipping her mother’s “I always loved a party”).
Spark’s scope is amazing, and her striking, glancing insights are precise and unforgettable. From the mysteries of Job’s sufferings, she glides to Dame Edith Sitwell’s cocktail advice about how to handle a nasty publisher, and on to the joys of success.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 2014

About the author

Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.

Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.

Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.

Reviews

[Iva · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are a group of rather thin essays; some did inform, however. Sparks close friend, Penelope Jardine, collected what she determined were her best essays, book reviews and musings. Topics are very broad: poets, writers, cats, Italy, the Brontes for starters. Interestingly I learned that Graham Greene was her patron when she wrote her first novel. All in all, I'd suggest sticking to her best novels. You can't beat Memento Mori or The Girls of Slender Means.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one might expect, Spark has lots of intelligent things to say about a variety of subjects, but especially other authors.

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The disposition of every soul is a secret matter, not easily discernable."

More or less sums up her whole body of work no?

[Wampus Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

At some points, Spark’s mindful prose is great, especially when reflecting on her early life. The problem is a hodgepodge collection like this will ultimately rise and fall on pieces never intended to be more than paid assignments from papers and journals.

I’m sure her novels are better.

[Trin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a well-edited book of essays, I am sad to say. Spark's friend, Penelope Jardine, begins with a preface that pauses to complain that books aren't religious enough these days (Me: ...uh-oh), then collects a series of pieces that are either redundant to each other or mere scraps. We get the same anecdotes about how Spark won a story prize, was admired and aided by Graham Greene, and reviewed positively by Evelyn Waugh multiple times, to the point that it begins to seem like she is simply bragging. Then there are three pieces on Emily Brontë; three on Mary Shelley plus one on Percy; two on Robert Louis Stevenson -- was this really all to be found?

The promised cat content, by the way, is less than three pages of text plus one (very fetching) photograph, covering Spark's love of her cat Bluebell...then Bluebell's tragic early illness and euthanasia (brutally described), after which Spark vows never to have a cat again. My previous cat also died tragically at four, so I sympathize, but yikes -- this in no way fulfills the promise of the copy or Jardine's introduction.

The pieces that do resemble full, substantial essays are dry and unilluminating, telling the reader little about Spark or her passions, except that they include Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

A disappointment from beginning to end. I have to believe -- to hope! -- that Spark had more interesting nonfiction output that for some reason simply didn't make it into this collection.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spark is a lovely writer, ferociously clever and sharp. The essays here are not all top notch, but some are terrific.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

i loved spending time with muriel spark and seeing things through her eyes. i'll miss her.

[Chris]

The Spark precision and crispness in a random but worthwhile collection.

"Same author, different genre" square of the 2023 Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo card.

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

For completists only. Rarely has a book taken me so long to read.

[Steven Severance · Rating 3 out of 5]

THe essays in the book are all pretty short -often 3 pages or less and so many of them do not seem that important nor substantial, but there are a few real gems here.

[Sirish · Rating 3 out of 5]

90% reference
5% reminiscing
5% the good parts

The necessary composition to survive in the informed air

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I'd hoped, and lacking much of the wit of her fiction. But interesting throughout, with several standout essays.