Muriel Spark is 'a wholly original presence in modern literature' (Andrew Motion). This collection, which contains all her published short stories together with some new writing, amply displays Muriel Spark's extraordinary talent; her cool, biting humour and unique vision of human nature. Ghosts and judges, priests, murder and French châteaux: all the Spark obsessions are here, and much more besides.
The Complete Short Stories (Canons)
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These stories are glittering, concise, funny and beautifully written - Telegraph
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Muriel Spark's many novels include THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (adapted for film and theatre) and, most recently, AIDING AND ABETTING. She has received many awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Saltire Prize, the Ingersoll T. S. Eliot Award and the David Cohen British Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. Muriel Spark lives in Italy.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By booksetc
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Often macabre and sinister, these stories (many of them ghost stories) date back to the early 1950s; many of them reflect Spark's early days in Africa (a biographical detail of which I was previously unaware). Usually, I dip haphazardly into short stories; but these are grouped by theme, and with hindsight it would have been better to read them in the right order.
By Vanessa Wu
Format:Paperback
The first story I read in this collection was Bang-Bang You're Dead. I would buy the book again just for that.
It's is a sophisticated story for sophisticated readers. At the beginning I was having to re-read each sentence three or four times. The English isn't difficult but the context is. The narrator is at a friend's house watching some old reels of film from her life in South Africa. Many questions played through my mind. How old is the person telling the story? Where is she? How old was she in that film? Who are these friends? Are they close friends or just acquaintances? Gradually, if you're patient, the questions get answered. The reels of film trigger flashbacks and revive old memories. The watchers of the films get one story. We get another.
It's an ambitious technical device and I was thinking that I was going to be very disappointed if the narrator didn't do something special with it and repay the effort I was making to interpret the layers of meaning.
But as the story unfolded I realised before I got to the end that I actually was being treated to something very special indeed. I became engrossed in the story and in the searingly honest character of the narrator. As she began to dissect her emotions and the motivations behind her relationships, I became hooked.
The layered viewpoints and the indirectness of the storytelling are not gratuitous. There are poignant ironies in the story that the narrator couldn't have conveyed any other way.
The tension builds. There is a climax. It's beautifully done. It's astonishingly economical storytelling. Thirty-eight succinct pages hold all the depth and range of a novel.
And then there is one final, crushing, heart-stopping revelation. Something she can't tell her friends but which she has told us, the sophisticated readers, who have stayed with her story to the end. I was totally gripped by the last few pages. Nothing could have wrenched me from my seat.
Muriel Spark seems to be regarded as old-fashioned by some readers these days. That seems a great pity. This kind of narrative power should never go out of fashion. It is heartening to see, therefore that her complete stories have now been published in this new edition by Canongate, one of the more enlightened of British independent publishers (another of their recent titles was Life of Pi).
It's is a sophisticated story for sophisticated readers. At the beginning I was having to re-read each sentence three or four times. The English isn't difficult but the context is. The narrator is at a friend's house watching some old reels of film from her life in South Africa. Many questions played through my mind. How old is the person telling the story? Where is she? How old was she in that film? Who are these friends? Are they close friends or just acquaintances? Gradually, if you're patient, the questions get answered. The reels of film trigger flashbacks and revive old memories. The watchers of the films get one story. We get another.
It's an ambitious technical device and I was thinking that I was going to be very disappointed if the narrator didn't do something special with it and repay the effort I was making to interpret the layers of meaning.
But as the story unfolded I realised before I got to the end that I actually was being treated to something very special indeed. I became engrossed in the story and in the searingly honest character of the narrator. As she began to dissect her emotions and the motivations behind her relationships, I became hooked.
The layered viewpoints and the indirectness of the storytelling are not gratuitous. There are poignant ironies in the story that the narrator couldn't have conveyed any other way.
The tension builds. There is a climax. It's beautifully done. It's astonishingly economical storytelling. Thirty-eight succinct pages hold all the depth and range of a novel.
And then there is one final, crushing, heart-stopping revelation. Something she can't tell her friends but which she has told us, the sophisticated readers, who have stayed with her story to the end. I was totally gripped by the last few pages. Nothing could have wrenched me from my seat.
Muriel Spark seems to be regarded as old-fashioned by some readers these days. That seems a great pity. This kind of narrative power should never go out of fashion. It is heartening to see, therefore that her complete stories have now been published in this new edition by Canongate, one of the more enlightened of British independent publishers (another of their recent titles was Life of Pi).
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Trish
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Muriel Spark was a well thought of writer in her day, but now her short stories appear old - fashioned.
She writes about an amazing variety of topics, and very often they have a twist in the tale.
Some of her stories made me laugh out loud, some were really sad, and others completely up the wall.
Worth reading.
She writes about an amazing variety of topics, and very often they have a twist in the tale.
Some of her stories made me laugh out loud, some were really sad, and others completely up the wall.
Worth reading.
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