STORIES OF MURIEL SPARK

by Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark’s seventeen novels have made her one of the most admired writers in the English-speaking world. But even before she began publishing her remarkable novels, she was already an acclaimed teller of stories, and she has continued to use the form throughout her distinguished career. The Stories of Muriel Spark brings together all those wonderful stories—from the early ones about Africa, written before her first novel, The Comforters, was published in 1957, to her most recent, “Another Pair of Hands” and “The Dragon,” both published this year in The New Yorker. It includes the stories of her previous collections—Voices at Play, The Go-Away Bird, and Bang-bang, You’re Dead—as well as a host of stories never before published in book form. From post-war Africa and London to contemporary Italy, the range of settings and characters displayed in this volume is astonishing, but perhaps even more so is the consistency of her prose—precise, witty, always alert to nuance and the moment that defines character. Superbly crafted and immensely entertaining, this is an incomparable collection from an incomparable writer.

Genres: Short Stories

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1985

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

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is certainly a varied collection of stories! They have predominantly three settings: the UK, continental Europe, Africa. Most of the stories fall into the 8-12 page range, with one notable exception of 40 pages. About half of them are written in the first person, but each of these is unique as it is not the same first person as in any other story in the collection.

The first story demonstrates her unique perspective. "The Portobello Road" is written in the first person of a woman who has been dead for five years. She proceeds to tell of her life before her death - and after. The afterlife comes up again in "The Executor." The niece of a famous writer is her uncle's literary executor. She carefully and responsibly finds a repository for her uncle's lifetime of work - except for his final unfinished novel. "The Ormolu Clock" was one of my favorites and has nothing to do with death. This takes place at a European resort where the owner is referred to as Frau Chef. This resort is very well-run, but Frau Chef is also very ambitious and acquisitive.

These were a few of my favorites. There were many more that I enjoyed. As with any collection, there were also a few that I failed to appreciate. Fortunately, they weren't many and the book ended on a high note. Still, I cannot rave to the heavens about it, and it lands in the high 4-star section.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved almost all of these stories, just some were fine. I love how brutal and bracing she is and how ridiculous many of her characters are. I loved the go-away bird and Daphne who says "I see" whenever she is told anything questionable. I loved the stories set in africa and england and how Muriel spark is completely unafraid to kill people off that she's helped you to love. also, the complete absurdity of love, and other people, and Nature lol. I loved the ones where the narrator thinks they have it all together but it turns out they don't understand anything at all, or others where they are 100% dealing with something supernatural and have to deal with it themselves as no one would believe (the notes from the dead uncle in The Executor for example).

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A varied, but interesting selection of short stories. The Portobello Road was one of my favourites; one of several with a supernatural element. Spark's stories set in Africa were also interesting, set as they were in colonial times long gone. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A collection of 27 short stories by Muriel Spark. All the stories were engaging reads, with interesting characters and good plot momentum.

My favourites are ‘The Go away Bird’ and ‘Portobello Road’.

This book was first published in 1985.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories are quite good. Some are not. I suppose that's how it is with most collections.

[Becca Younk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Portobello Road" and "Bang Bang You're Dead" are the standouts from this collection.

[zunggg · Rating 3 out of 5]

At her best, no one sparkles like Spark, but there's a fair amount of filler here, slices of life that read more like sketches than full fledged stories.

[Ci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first read of Muriel Spark's work and I am very impressed by her short-stories. Her language is lean and spare, without any foreshowing for abrupt turns in the narrative.

What is both subtle and powerful in her narrative is how evil works in the human life. Evil does not suddenly show up as a force of sudden violence of destruction, but something work through the yeast of a human fragility and weakness. The first story - 'The Portobello Road' is a great example.


*** Reading Notes ***
6/19 The Portobello Road. A ghosty point of view of friendship and violence.
6/20 The curtain blown by the breeze. The yeasty ground for human evils in the stormy fertile land of South Africa.
6/21 The black Madonna. How shallow is veneer of goodwill when true mystery of human blood is concerned.
6/22 Bang-bang you are died. A play-act from childhood to adult becomes a sinister play of our inner life of strife, shallowness and boring malignancy.
6/24 Seraph and Zambesi. Is this about a mystical vision which fails to register in other people?
6/24 Twins. One of the most amazingly sinister/mysterious story with nothing deadly happened. But there is a transparent tentacle of something evil lurking under that tranquil family of four.
6/25 the Playhouse called Remarkable. The story is told in a semi-mad, semi-magical realistic form. Is this a way to explain the power of religion against the existential boredom?
6/25 Pawnbroker's Wife. It is not so much the fantasy and unrealism that these women live in but the pernicious insistence on other's active participation in it.
6/26 Miss Pinkerton's Apocalypse: a moment of super-natural and sub-natural in the silly life and life of Miss P.
6/27. Leaf Sweeper: not sure about this story.
6/27 Daisy Overend: a deliciously wicked revenge on a pretentious and malicious woman -- a piece of garter!
6/29 Come along, Majorie. In a Catholic monastery, people are still people, resisting no evil in gossiping and guessing the worst of others. Even in monastery, profanity overlords the mystical.
7/2 Ormolu clock. Ormolu is a decorative alloy and the clock has served as chilling reminder of conquer and defeat. What the Frau appears to be and what she truly is lies the probing of this strange person.
8/1 Dark Glass. A sinister but wry story about seeing through glass darkly.
8/22 The going-away bird. Very long, convoluted, and lost in the way. My least favorite story of Muriel Spark so far. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... has a similar view)

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not her novels.