La abadesa de Crewe ocurre como un cuento de hadas exasperado, rica en circunstancias y detalles que gravitan en el lugar en que el título nos sitúa, entre religiosas que desplazan casi involuntariamente el conflicto y lo conducen, con cierta parsimonia dolorosa, de la pleitesía al agravio. Con una virtuosa precognición, la autora coloca en la novela un sistema de mensajes interno que socava rápidamente la información, la magnetiza con un método que tiene al mismo tiempo algo de político y algo...
'Muriel Spark's most celebrated novel . . . This ruthlessly and destructively romantic school ma'am is one of the giants of post-war fiction' Independent 'A brilliantly psychological fugue' Observer The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Muriel Spark's most significant and celebrated novel, and remains as dazzling as when it was first published in 1961. Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher unlike any other, proud and cultured, enigmatic and freethinking; a...
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. But his protector, the indestructible millionaire Maggie Radcliffe, has withdrawn her patronage – and the supplicant sets out to appease his ancestress. With gruesome results . . .
Aiding and Abetting is Muriel Spark's mordant and witty satirical take on the true crime genre, a novel of fraudsters, imposters, murderers and aiders and abetters. In Paris, a psychiatrist finds herself treating two elderly gentlemen who both claim to be the notorious British fugitive Lord Lucan. But who, if either, is the real Lord Lucan? Can she discover the truth before her own dark secret is revealed?
The Abbess of Crewe is Muriel Spark's razor sharp, wickedly humorous and surreal satire of a real life political scandal – reimagined within the claustrophobic walls of a convent. A steely, Machiavellian nun, secret surveillance, corruption, cloak-and-dagger plotting, rivalries and a rigged election all send the wonderful cast of characters into disarray as a chain of events unfold that become weirder and weirder.
Behind the high walls of a mansion in Geneva a night of sinister revelry is about to begin . . . In the staff quarters, the servants led by the cool, unflappable butler are preparing for the downfall of the Baron and Baroness. Meanwhile in the attic, the Baron's invalid brother awaits his fate as an unwitting pawn in their devious plans. And in the library, the Baron, the Baroness and their young handsome secretary are locked in a mysterious, heated discussion. As the macabre...
'One of her funniest novels . . . Spark at her sharpest, her purest and her most merciful' ALI SMITH In The Finishing School Muriel Spark is once again at her biting, satirical best. On the edge of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a struggling would-be novelist and his wife run a finishing school of questionable reputation to keep the funds flowing. When a seventeen-year-old student's writing career begins to show great promise, tensions begin to run high. A keen portrait of...
Having led a successful, comfortable life, Harvey Gotham retires to the French countryside to pursue bookish obsessions and writing. But when the French police discover his estranged wife's involvement in a terrorist group, suspicion falls on Gotham himself and a series of misfortunes threaten to destroy everything he holds dear.
When a plane crashes on a remote island, the three survivors find themselves the unwanted guests of the island's mysterious sole inhabitant, Robinson. In the blazing heat at the foot of a volcano, tensions come to a climax and events take an ominous turn when one of the party disappears. As one of the survivors begins to write a journal, reality increasingly blurs with fiction . . . Robinson is Spark's dark and sizzling tale of human manipulation.
The Bachelors displays the best of Sparkian satire, placing her at the heart of a great literary tradition alongside Waugh and Trollope, Wilde and Wodehouse. It demands rediscovery. 'It's easy to see why Waugh admired The Bachelors. On one level, it is a blithely carnivorous satire in the Waugh mould. The bachelors of the title – almost the only men we meet in the narrative – are the thirty-something male barristers, teachers, journalists and museum attendants of a small patch of...
Con gracia paradójica, la novela de Muriel Spark afina y condensa la diferencia entre géneros tan disímiles como el thriller y los manuales de autoayuda y se anticipa además a las previsiones en temas relacionados con el placer de la lectura.Satisface todas las expectativas porque contiene las claves para vencer el insomnio, para adelgazar, para tener fuerza de voluntad, para concentrarse y escribir una novela y para tratar con maridos. El éxito queda garantizado.