The Collected Stories of Muriel Spark

by Muriel Spark

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Female Authors, London

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 1994

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

[Katja · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating is actually between three and four since quite a few stories from the collection I already forgot and stylistically I did not find the prose remarkable. Most stories are told from the first person perspective and are full of "I's". Even more, some of the stories are by very simple women so the language is intentionally plain. I had not known much about Muriel Spark before I started reading and at some point realized that, formally, she resembles Flannery O'Connor, being another 20th century female short-stories writer, influenced by Catholicism. However, to me, Spark's stories lack the depth of O'Connor's prose, or I simply missed it. But she uses fun tricks not found in O'Connor's works, like the unreliable narrator of "The twins".

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the end, I've decided to quit half-way. The collection of stories often involve detached characters and they read like clinically objective reports of their situations. I simply couldn't get immersed in any but 2 of the stories from over the 15 that I read! It doesn't help either that the writing is on the stiff side. And it just all feels too outdated, a fact not helped by the style of writing, although in no way the writer's fault that the world has fortunately changed so much. It's disappointing because for some unexplained reason, it's one of those books that I really wanted to like.

[Дмитрий · Rating 3 out of 5]

Я прочитал только The House of the Famous Poet. Странный рассказ о военном Лондоне.

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But I did not remove my glasses, for I had not asked for her company in the first place, and there is a limit to what one can listen to with the naked eye."

Muriel Spark is one of the many authors whose work I've had in mind to read for a while, so happening upon a used copy of this, her collected short stories, in a charity shop seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out some of her work.

I honestly don't know what I was expecting here, but I will certainly say that from the very first story, I was hooked. Spark reminds me of an almost British Flannery O'Connor with odd characters, dry humor, and an unsettling, almost sinister twist to every story she tells. My favorite short stories are the ones that take everything you've encountered so far, in however brief a span, and completely subvert it all. Like O'Connor, that was certainly Spark's specialty.

Naturally, some stories were better than others, but from my full list of ratings below, you can see that none ever sunk below three stars for me. There were times where her plots and characters started to feel a bit repetitive, but I think this is only natural with a complete collection like this; you can't just take an entire life's work, sum it all up into one start-to-finish context, and snub it for unoriginality.

In fact, on the contrary, it's always interesting to me with a full collection like this to see what kinds of themes and tropes emerge. Nearly all of Spark's protagonists are women, many of them young women only beginning to find their way in the world. Repeat settings include Lake Como and an anonymized 'Colony', presumably South Africa. (I will add that are definitely some racist undertones there to be aware of.)

Overall, I wouldn't go as far to say that Spark is a new favorite writer, but from the glimpses I've had here into her mind, her world, her upbringing, and especially her writing, I am definitely keen to explore more of her work and get to know her even better.

The Portobello Road — ★★★★★
The Curtain Blown by the Breeze — ★★★★
The Black Madonna — ★★★
Bang Bang You’re Dead — ★★★★
The Seraph and the Zambesi — ★★★
The Twins — ★★★
The Playhouse Called Remarkable — ★★★
The Pawnbroker’s Wife — ★★★
Miss Pinkerton’s Apocalypse — ★★★★
‘A Sad Tale’s Best for Winter’ — ★★★
The Leaf-Sweeper — ★★★★
Daisy Overend — ★★★
You Should Have Seen the Mess — ★★★★
Come Along, Marjorie — ★★★
The Ormolu Clock — ★★★★
The Dark Glasses — ★★★★★
A Member of the Family — ★★★★
The House of the Famous Poet — ★★★
The Fathers’ Daughters — ★★★★
Open to the Public — ★★★★
Alice Long’s Dachshunds — ★★★★
The Go-Away Bird — ★★★★
The First Year of My Life — ★★★
The Gentile Jewesses — ★★★
The Executor — ★★★★
The Fortune-Teller — ★★★★
Another Pair of Hands — ★★★★
The Dragon — ★★★★
The Girl I Left Behind Me — ★★★★

Average rating comes out to 3.69, which rounds up to 4 stars.

[Alec]

#19
The brown legs of lovely young men and girls passed her as she approached the sea. I ought to appreciate every minute of this, she thought, it might be the last time. This thoroughly blue sea, these brown limbs, these white teeth and innocent inane tongues, these palm trees - all this is what we are paying for.

#23
The children were squealing and toddling around. One was sick and another wet the floor and stood with his legs apart gaping at the puddle. All was mopped up. I banged my spoon on the table of my high chair.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

The Portobello road --4
*The curtain blown by the breeze --
*The black Madonna --
*Bang-bang you're dead --
*The seraph and the Zambesi --
The twins --
The playhouse called remarkable --
*The pawnbroker's wife --
Miss Pinkerton's apocalypse --2
'A sad tale's best for winter' --
The leaf-sweeper --2
Daisy overend --
You should have seen the mess --4
Come along, Marjorie --
The ormolu clock --
*The dark glasses --
*A member of the family --
The house of the famous poet --2
*The fathers' daughters --
Alice Long's dachshunds --
*The go-away bird --
The first year of my life --3
The gentile Jewesses --2
*The executor --
The fortune-teller --
*Another pair of hands --
*The dragon --
The girl I left behind me--3
***
*The quest for Lavishes Ghast--
*Open to the public--
*The pearly shadow--