Bøger af Muriel Spark

Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional school mistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, unconventional ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy who become the Brodie 'set', introduced to a world of adult games that they will never forget.

A title written by the author of novels such as "Memento Mori" (1959), "The Ballad of Peckham Rye" (1960), "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961), "The Girls of Slender Means" (1963), and "Aiding and Abetting" (2000).

So speaks the narrator of Muriel Spark''s haunting tale, ''The Leaf-sweeper'', before going on to recount the disturbing and mercilessly witty story of a certain ''madman'' - Johnnie Geddes, hell-bent on outlawing Christmas - who meets the most terrifying of all apparitions: himself.

It is no surprise that one of Muriel Spark's most lively and entertaining works would be her own memoir, Curriculum Vitae. Born to a Scottish Jewish father and an English Presbyterian mother, Spark describes her childhood in 1930s Edinburgh in brief, dazzling anecdotes. In one she recalls a cherished schoolteacher, Christina Kay, who would later be used as the prototype for Miss Jean Brodie. Spark boldly details her disastrous first marriage to Sydney Oswald Spark (S.O.S.) - himself thirty-two, she just nineteen - whom she followed to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and left behind to return to England. In the midst of WWII, Spark took a bizarre position working in the disinformation campaign of the British Secret Service, eliciting information from German POWs to combat Nazi propaganda. She later moved to the Poetry Society of London, where she mingled with literati and other intellectuals, befriended by some (such as Graham Greene, an early supporter of her work) and sparring with others. We experience Spark's joy with the publication of her first novel, The Comforters, her trials with other writers' envy, and her emergence as the most brilliant femme fatale of 20th-century English literature.

January Marlow, a heroine with a Catholic outlook of the most unsentimental stripe, is one of three survivors out of twenty-nine souls when her plane crashes, blazing, on Robinson's island. Presumed dead for months, the three survivors must wait for the annual return of the pomegranate boat. Robinson, a determined loner, proves a fair if misanthropic host to his uninvited guests; he encourages January to keep a journal: as "an occupation for my mind, and I fancied that I might later dress it up for a novel. That was most peculiar, as things transpired, for I did not then anticipate how the journal would turn upon me, so that having survived the plane disaster, I should nearly meet my death through it." In Robinson, Muriel Spark's wonderful second novel, under the tropical glare and strange fogs of the tiny island, we find a volcano, a ping-pong playing cat, a dealer in occult as well as lucky charms, flying ants, sexual tension, a disappearance, blackmail, andperhapsmurder. Everything astounds, confounds, and convinces, frighteningly. "She is," as Charles Alva Hoyt once put it, "the Jane Austen of the Surrealists." Robinson, a unique and marvelous novel, is another display of the powers of "the most gifted and innovative British novelist" (The New York Times). In the work of Dame Murielin the last words of Robinson "immediately all things are possible."

Die aus Bayern stammende Psychologin Dr. Hildegard Wolf hat sich nach einigen Jahren in verschiedenen Ländern in Paris niedergelassen und praktiziert dort als eine der gefragtesten Psychologen der Stadt. Das Besondere an ihrer Therapie ist die fast ausschließliche einseitige Gesprächsführung in der ersten Sitzung durch die Psychologin, ohne dass der Patient redet. Einer ihrer Patienten behauptet, der berüchtigte Kindermädchenmörder "Lucky" Lord Lucan zu sein, welcher seit einigen Jahren als verschollen gilt. Die Psychiaterin ist verwirrt, da noch ein anderer Patient genauso behauptet Lord Lucan zu sein- und sie beginnt der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen. Doch bevor sie weitere Nachforschungen über die wahre Identität des Mörders aufdecken kann, wird sie schon von dem betrügerischen Duo erpresst. Die britische katholische Schriftstellerin Muriel Spark, gebürtig Muriel Sarah Camberg, wurde am 01.02.1918 in Edinburgh geboren und verstarb am 13.04.2006 in der italienischen Stadt Florenz. Sie gilt als eine der bedeutendsten und prägendsten britischen Autorinnen, viele ihrer Romane und Werke zählen zu den wichtigsten Klassikern der englischsprachigen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts.Muriel Spark erhielt für ihre Romane, Sammlungen und Stücke zahlreiche Auszeichnungen und Ehrungen.

Driven mad by an office job, Lise flies south on holiday - in search of passionate adventure and sex. In this metaphysical shocker, infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in the unnamed southern city that is her final destination.

The first volume of the letters of Muriel Spark, one of the most fascinating and well-loved writers of the twentieth century - edited and published for the first time. In 1944 Muriel Spark was unknown as a writer except to a handful of close friends, returning to England after a disastrous marriage in Southern Rhodesia; by 1963 she was the internationally renowned author of seven critically acclaimed, bestselling novels including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Her letters - witty, affectionate, acid-tongued, mercurial - reveal the turbulence of her early career in postwar London, including her struggles to earn a living as a writer, her difficult relationships with Howard Sergeant and Derek Stanford, a terrifying breakdown, and her conversion to Catholicism. They also trace her development from tentative poet to acclaimed novelist, with glittering insights into the emergence of her unique literary voice, as well as her relationships with friends, lovers, writers and publishers. Selected from her extensive correspondence and insightfully edited and annotated, this is an essential read for anyone interested in Spark's writing and mid-century literature.

Muriel Spark's timeless and eternally modern novel of power and influence, brought to life for a new age of readers in a stunning dyslexia-friendly edition.

For Barbara Vaughn, a checkpoint between Jordan and the newly formed Israel is the threshold to painful self-discoveryBarbara Vaughn is a scholarly woman whose fascination with religion stems partly from a conversion to Catholicism, and partly from her own half-Jewish background. When her boyfriend joins an archaeological excursion to search for additional Dead Sea Scrolls, Vaughn takes the opportunity to explore the Holy Land. But this is 1960, and with the nation of Israel still in its infancy, the British Empire in retreat from the region, and the Eichmann trials in full swing, Vaughn uncovers much deeper mysteries than those found at tourist sites.Both an espionage thriller and a journey of faith, The Mandelbaum Gate won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize upon its publication, and is one of Spark's most compelling novels.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Muriel Spark including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's archive at the National Library of Scotland.

Spiritualist and extortionist Patrick Seton is coming up for trial. He¿s been accused of forgery, and suddenly West London¿s bachelors are all in a tizzy. Described by Evelyn Waugh as the `cleverest and most elegant of all Mrs Spark¿s clever and elegant books¿, The Bachelors is a biting comedy of English manners.This is one of the 22 novels written by Muriel Spark in her lifetime. All are being published by Polygon in hardback Centenary Editions between November 2017 and September 2018.

Caroline Rose has a problem. She hears voices and the incessant tapping of typewriter keys, and she seems to be a character in a novel . . . A comedy of errors, a crime novel, a book about books, Spark¿s debut remains as otherworldly and mischievous as it was when first published sixty years ago.The publishers acknowledge investment from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this book.Supported by the Muriel Spark Society.

A Good Comb, a small gift edition of Muriel Spark's brilliant asides, sayings, and aphorisms, is a book for sheer enjoyment. No writer offers such lively, pointed, puckish insights: "Neurotics are awfully quick to notice other people's mentalities." "It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles." "The sacrifice of pleasure is of course itself a pleasure." "It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist." "She wasn't a person to whom things happen." "You look for one thing and you find another." "It calms you down, a good comb."Her scope is great and her striking insights are precise and unforgettable. This book will entertain you? It will even help you live your life. Drink in the pleasures of this little volume along with the benefits of taking up such advice as "Never make excuses but if you must, never make more than one? It gives the appearance of insincerity." And "Beware of men bearing flowers."

The definitive short story collection from an unmistakable voice. Introduced by Janice Galloway

Now available as a stunning Canon'A work of glittering Sparkian ice, whose thinly frozen surface tempts you to jump up and down jovially above something deeper and darker' ALI SMITH

Anarchic, irreverent and razor-sharp, this new collection of Muriel Spark's satires confirms its creator as the mistress of British wit

Travel the continent with this new collection of Muriel Spark's European novels as your guide - an often surprising, occasionally moving, and always unfailingly funny trip

'I am dazzled by The Bachelors. It is the cleverest and most elegant of all Spark's clever and elegant books' Evelyn WaughNow available in print and eBook as a gorgeous canon

With easy, sunny eeriness, Spark lights up the darkest things: blackmail, a drowning, nervous breakdowns, a ring of smugglers, a loathsome busybody, a diabolic bookseller, human evil.

First published in 1993, this book brings together Muriel Spark's writings on the Bronte sisters, including a selection of their letters and a selection of Emily Bronte's poems.

In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone reminds each: Remember you must die. Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled, and many an old unsavory secret is dusted off.

Rich and slim, the celebrated author Nancy Hawkins takes us in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London, where she spends her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher ("of very good books") and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. Everywhere Mrs. Hawkins finds evil: with aplomb, however, she confidently sets about putting things to order, to terrible effect.