Muriel Spark

Dame Muriel Spark (born February 1, 1918) is a leading British novelist.

Related Topics:
February 1 - 1918 - Novelist

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She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, Scotland to a Jewish father and an Anglican mother, and was educated at Gillespie's School for Girls. In 1938, she married, and worked in intelligence during the Second World War. She began writing seriously after the war, under her married name, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947, she became editor of the Poetry Review. In 1954, she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, a fact she considered crucial in her development towards becoming a novel writer. Her first novel The Comforters was published in 1957, but it was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962) which established her reputation. After living in New York for some years, she settled in Italy in the late 1960s. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.

Related Topics:
Edinburgh - Scotland - Second World War - Poetry - Literary criticism - 1947 - 1954 - Roman Catholic Church - 1957 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - 1962 - New York - Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire - 1993

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Spark's originality of subject and tone has been apparent since the outset of her career: The Comforters featured a character who knew she was in a novel; and in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie she told her characters' stories from the past and the future simultaneously. The sense of a pervasive evil plays an important role in most of her books. Her approach towards her characters and their doings in most of her novels can be best described as a cold gaze that mercilessly points out failure and evil.

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Novels

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• The Comforters (1957)
• Robinson (1958)
• Memento Mori (1959)
• The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960)
• The Bachelors (1960)
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962)
• The Girls of Slender Means (1963)
• The Mandelbaum Gate (1965)
• The Public Image (1968)
• The Driver's Seat (1970)
• Not to Disturb (1971)
• The Hothouse by the East River (1973)
• The Abbess of Crewe (1974)
• The Takeover (1976)
• Territorial Rights (1979)
• Loitering with Intent (1981)
• The Only Problem (1984)
• A Far Cry From Kensington (1988)
• Symposium (1991)
• Reality and Dreams (1996)
• Aiding and Abetting (2000)
• The Finishing School (2004)