Muriel Spark RIP

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from the sunday times (uk):


Comment: Allan Massie: Granite beneath that Spark of genius
Muriel Spark’s first novel, The Comforters, was published when I was 18. I read it almost immediately and was entranced. It was clever, odd, mysterious, very funny, wholly individual. Like so many of my generation I have been her constant and devoted reader.

She started at the top and remained there. One of the first to admire and draw attention to her work was Evelyn Waugh. In a letter to her he wrote, very perceptively: “Most novelists find there is one kind of book they can write and go on doing it with variations until death. You seem to have an inexhaustible source.” So, indeed, she did.

Muriel was in her late thirties when that first novel came out. Others followed in rapid succession. It was as if a dam had broken and a talent long repressed had been allowed to flow freely. I was at Cambridge then. How greedily and with what joy we gobbled them up. They were the kind of novels from which you delighted to read passages aloud to your friends, to share the jokes. Did we then realise she was also a stern moralist? Probably not. But she was. “You never get all you want in life,” says a character in The Bachelors.

In those days she was a cult novelist and we were happy to be members of the cult. The success of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie changed all of that, made her an international success. The most Scottish of her books, this story of a charismatic Edinburgh schoolmistress and the little girls whom she tries to mould became a play and film. It caught the essence of a particular Edinburgh.

“My whole education, in and out of school,” she once wrote, “seemed to pivot around the word ‘nevertheless’ . . . My teachers used it a great deal. All grades of society constructed sentences bridged by ‘nevertheless’ . . . I can see the lips of tough elderly women in musquash coats taking tea at MacVittie’s, enunciating this word of final justification . . . I find that much of my literary composition is based on the nevertheless idea . . . It was on the nevertheless principle that I turned Catholic . . .”

It is a key passage to understanding Muriel Spark. When, in the late 1970s, I wrote a short critical study of her novels, the idea of “nevertheless” ran through the text.

To the end, although self-exiled from Edinburgh, the city where she could not possibly live as an adult, she nevertheless, again, always seemed to me to belong there. It was not difficult to imagine her taking tea in Jenner’s or in the old North British hotel, delivering judgment. She wrote of the city’s “informed air . . . its haughty and remote anarchism”.

In the 1960s she lived in some style, in New York and then Rome. Her novels likewise escaped the dark closes of Edinburgh and the bed-sitter wastelands of Kensington and Earls Court in London. Usually short, often dark, still incomparably witty, her subject was increasingly the monstrous irresponsibility of the rich. She juggled with time to reveal the ineluctable working of consequence. For there was in her always, beneath the fun and the glitter, a grim sense — Calvinist? Jewish? — that you are what you make of yourself, that character is destiny.

When I came to write that little book I concentrated wholly on the work. That was prudent. Her personal life was private and she guarded it fiercely. When an old friend, sometime lover and literary collaborator, Derek Stanford, wrote revealingly in his memoirs about their time together, her fury and resentment were fierce. Years later she had her revenge, depicting him with savage contempt in A Far Cry from Kensington. If this seemed disproportionate, his offence was, to her, unforgivable.

So it was with some trepidation that I sent her a copy of my book. Fortunately she approved, thereafter gave me constant encouragement. I met her soon after at a little dinner given in her honour at the Garrick Club in London. There was nothing of the grande dame in her manner, no insistence on being the cynosure of attention. On the contrary, she seemed modest and friendly. Yet one suspected that it would be very easy to cross an invisible boundary into forbidden territory.

Thereafter we met occasionally when she came to Scotland. To my regret now I never took up the invitation, given more than once, to visit her in Italy. We corresponded from time to time. She gave me a short story to publish when I was editing a literary magazine in Edinburgh and did not remark on the meagreness of the fee I was able to offer. I continued to review her novels and sent her books of my own if I thought — or hoped — they might interest her. She was punctilious in expressing thanks and kind enough to say she liked them. When, somewhat to my embarrassment, my publishers sent her one of my novels in the hope of getting a quote that could be put on the jacket, she gave them the most generous puff I have ever had. I like to think she meant it, but it may have just been good manners. Her manners were very good, in an old-fashioned Edinburgh style.

I knew her for almost 30 years, but I realise I never really knew the woman as distinct from the author. I was going to write that scores of people must have known her much better. But I wonder if this was so. I rather suspect that nobody, in her later life anyway, knew her well except the sculptor Penelope Jardine, the friend with whom she shared a house in Tuscany for the last quarter-century.

Despite her exile, Spark considered herself always to be a Scot and her Edinburgh upbringing remained central to her habit of thought and way of writing. She retained an affection for the city of her youth and happy memories of it.

Light-hearted, witty, yet profoundly serious, her books puzzled as many as they delighted. How could a novel be as sparkling as a glass of champagne and yet deal with the ultimate questions of human existence? But that’s what she offered.

Beneath the frivolity of manner and the jokes, there was granite. And what can be more Scottish than that? Ultimately her view of life and human nature was stern, cold, unforgiving. Nevertheless, how she delighted in the glittering surface, too. What fun she had with all evidence of folly and vanity. What deep pleasure she has given for so long to so many. There was no writer quite like her.

scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 16 April 2006 10:27 (eighteen years ago) link

from the scotsman:


Dame Muriel Spark dies aged 88
IAN RANKIN

MURIEL Spark was the greatest Scottish novelist of modern times, the irony being that she departed Scotland as a teenager and returned thereafter only for brief visits. Yet this distance may well have helped her as a novelist of international acclaim. Like Stevenson before her, she clung to Scottishness, and her roots are evident in everything she wrote.

Famed as she eventually was for 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - which remains the best novel ever penned about Edinburgh - there was (and is) so much more to Spark. Her first novel, The Comforters (1957) was about a woman who knew she was a character in a novel, making it clear that Spark was influenced as much by contemporary experiments in fiction as by the Border ballads she had read in her youth. Her final novel, The Finishing School (2004) is about the process of writing and the agony of being a (fading) writer.

Yet critics often ignored the edgy, experimental side of Spark's craft, opting instead to focus on her glittering prose and comedic lightness of touch. Her genius stems from the fact that she was an expert stylist who could engage the general reader while still posing tough moral questions. Her best novels are as tightly constructed as poems, packing more meaning into their short duration than would appear possible.

Spark began her life as a poet - one of her early attempts winning her a prize at James Gillespie's School. After a short, failed marriage, and wartime work in London, she edited a poetry magazine and started to go quietly mad, existing as she did in genteel poverty with a young son to feed, making do with coffee and pills. Graham Greene helped her financially (on the understanding that she would never attempt to thank him), and this gave Spark the strength to fictionalise her own moment of crisis in her first published novel.

Like many other people, for a long time I knew little of Spark apart from the magnificent film version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. But after finishing my undergraduate degree, a lecturer advised me that I might want to apply to do a PhD - he also mentioned Spark as a suitable subject.

The outcome was that I spent three years reading her books intently, writing chapters towards my thesis. Her best work combines a sense of the comic macabre with piercing satire. In an essay, she said that the modern novel should prick the conscience while being harsh and mocking - the only possible reaction to the absurdity of the contemporary scene.

Spark was a Catholic convert, and much of her best work reads like an extended dialogue with herself about the nature of God. In novels such as The Only Problem and The Mandelbaum Gate specific theological debates are touched on, the 'problem' being human suffering - why would God allow it to happen? What is the nature of evil and how are we to understand it in a religious context?

If these matters sound weighty, they are balanced by elegant phrasing and the novelist's empathy with her characters - the reader never feels preached to or barracked.

The problem, perhaps, for Spark herself is that she never seemed to fit with the late-20th century notion of what Scottish fiction was. As Lanark, Kelman and Irvine Welsh arrived, it seemed that a particular tone of voice and way of looking at the world could be discerned in the Scottish novel. Spark's characters were usually upper-middle class and living in exotic locations, leading her to be marginalised. There was also perhaps a misconception that great literature had to come in large packages - and Spark's lengthier novels remain her least successful.

Critics and bookshops like to be able to stick a label on a writer's work, and Spark defied easy categorisation. That was what was so thrilling - you never knew quite what you were going to get. She wrote about desert island castaways (Robinson), glamorous film stars (The Public Image), convents (The Abbess of Crewe) and Lord Lucan (Aiding and Abetting). Many of these books were produced on school jotters sent to her from an Edinburgh stationer's - whether she was living in New York or Italy.

It is perhaps too soon to say what effect Spark had on Scottish literature, but her eclecticism seems to fit perfectly with the current scene, where authors feel they can write about Botswana as well as Leith, and produce science fiction as well as thrillers.

Having studied her books for years, I met Dame Muriel just the once - at the Edinburgh Book Festival two years ago. She had spoken with insight and humour about her work, and had thrilled the audience with a rare reading from Miss Jean Brodie.

By the time I approached her, I could see she was tiring, so decided to choose just one of the many books I'd taken with me to ask her to sign. It was my first edition of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She inscribed it "with admiration and warm wishes". My own admiration for her contribution to world literature knows no bounds. She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the crème de la crème.
Scotland's answer to Jane Austen leaves lasting legacy

HER talent was spotted when, as a 12-year-old schoolgirl, she secured her first literary prize. It was just the start of a magnificent career for Dame Muriel Spark - arguably Scotland's greatest writer of modern times - who has died, in Italy, aged 88.

Last night tributes flowed in from the literary, political and wider world for the poet, biographer and writer who passed away in hospital in Florence on Thursday.

She had lived in Civitella della Chiana, in Tuscany, for the past 26 years and had been battling health problems since last year. A small funeral service was held for her in the town yesterday.

In a tribute to his literary idol, Ian Rankin, the Edinburgh-based author of the Rebus novels who was heavily influenced by Spark, described her as "the greatest Scottish novelist of modern times".

Scots novelist Ali Smith said: "I have loved Muriel Spark's books since I was 14. I can't bear to think there will not be any more novels. She was one of the most important writers for centuries - probably on the same scale as Jane Austen."

Willy Maley, professor of English Literature at Glasgow University, said: "This is a tragic loss. She was a one-off, in the same way as Beckett or Joyce. Prolific, consistently brilliant and somebody who wrote with bravery and daring. If I was asked to prescribe a writer I would put Muriel Spark at the top of the list. She was much more than Miss Jean Brodie. Across five decades she made herself a genius."

Spark was made an honorary citizen of Civitella della Chiana last September. Its mayor Massimliano Dindalini yesterday joined in the tributes. "She was very open," he said. "Her loss will be very difficult to overcome. She was a simple person, affectionate and considerate."

Dr Gavin Wallace, head of literature at the Scottish Arts Council, described Spark's death as "an ineffably sad and deep loss to literature".

He said: "Her achievement and influence as Scotland's - if not the UK's - greatest novelist have been so vast that in an odd way she seemed to be an immutable part of the cultural landscape. I wrote to her only two weeks ago with the good news that we had secured the first Muriel Spark International Literary Fellowship, a new post to which she graciously gave her name. At least that will offer one modest way of beginning to honour her enormous legacy."

Ordinary fans of Spark's work around the world left glowing tributes to her talent.

"This Easter weekend, a literary spark has been extinguished," Arun Khanna, of Indianapolis, United States, wrote on the BBC's website.

Lynn, of Hashimoto, Japan, said: "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie was an utter classic. Muriel Spark was way ahead of her time. RIP."

Much closer to home, Grant Russell, from Livingston, West Lothian, summed up the reaction of many Scots. He wrote: "At school, I was uninterested in English until The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was handed to me to study for class. I am now studying on a university course which relies heavily on my understanding of the English language, so thank you Muriel Spark. Rest in peace."

Spark grew up in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. At Kays bookshop in nearby Morningside, manager Donald Grant said: "It's a very sad end of a chapter of Scottish literature. She was easily one of the best authors Scotland has ever produced and she is right up there with the greats."

Spark wrote more than 20 novels during her long career. But it was the accent of her birth and youth in Edinburgh, where she attended James Gillespie's High School for Girls, that provided the prototype for her most famous character. The 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, about a narcissistic 1930s Scottish teacher, brought her to international attention. Its portrayal on the silver screen won Dame Maggie Smith a best actress Oscar in 1969.

Among Spark's many literary achievements were the TS Eliot prize in 1992 and the British Literature Prize in 1997. The Scottish Arts Council created the Muriel Spark International Fellowship in 2004. Spark was made a Dame in 1993 in recognition of her services to literature. She was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1978, and Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 1996.

Leading politicians last night joined in the tributes. Scotland's culture minister Patricia Ferguson said: "Dame Muriel Spark was a great Scottish woman who led a fascinating life, producing work over more than half a century which has transcended generations and entertained millions."

Mike Russell, the writer and former SNP culture spokesman, added: "She was one of Scotland's most important voices in the 20th century."

Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday's literary editor, said: "Spark's oeuvre is unparalleled in contemporary Scottish writing - acerbic, tender, insightful and nuanced. It's a keen loss, not just in terms of a truly great writer, but of a writer who was exceptionally generous with her time and advice to younger authors."

scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 16 April 2006 10:35 (eighteen years ago) link

My girlfriend bought The Finishing School from a second hadn shop on Friday. Got home, turned on the news and found out she had died.

I like her books very much.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 08:38 (eighteen years ago) link

The Seraph and the Zambesi, her short story competition winner from 1951.

Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 20 April 2006 09:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I wrote a column about her great books for Bookslut last year. (self promotion alert)

http://www.bookslut.com/small_but_perfectly_formed/2005_06_005729.php

James Morrison (JRSM), Friday, 21 April 2006 04:52 (eighteen years ago) link

loitering with intent and prime

the pug, Friday, 21 April 2006 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

ten years pass...

started reading 'the prime of miss jean brodie', im enjoying it..

what is w this cover btw

http://imgur.com/MnOnulx

johnny crunch, Saturday, 24 December 2016 14:08 (seven years ago) link

http://i.imgur.com/MnOnulx.jpg?1

johnny crunch, Saturday, 24 December 2016 14:09 (seven years ago) link

I have been slowly and sort-of chronologically making my way through her work over the past few years. Just now finishing up The Bachelors and wanted to drop in to say that this is a great, great book that no one ever talks about.

cwkiii, Monday, 26 December 2016 21:28 (seven years ago) link

xp LOL

flopson, Monday, 26 December 2016 23:52 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1bDNDoB0DQ

Recent BBC documentary - I wouldn't say its enormously insightful but still an enjoyable watch, and a reminder that I need to track down those books of hers which I never got around to.

.robin., Wednesday, 27 June 2018 04:12 (five years ago) link

Great thread, hadn't seen it before. I've only read Brodie so far, but impressed by her use of "spoilers" to turn attention this way and that, yet also undersells the characters---if you want to think and/or care about them in a certain way, there's plenty room. Although she does introduce us to some historical context, such as Brodie's being of the generation of women with not a lot of male contemporaries (because WWI), so previous expectations, pressures, possibilities were off-kilter, continuing into Depression and WWII at least.

dow, Thursday, 28 June 2018 00:01 (five years ago) link

Also this thread:

RIP Muriel Spark

I've spent the last decade reading or re-reading her work. A joy.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 June 2018 00:19 (five years ago) link

Haven't read this yet, but Margaret Drabble on Spark: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/muriel-spark-margaret-drabble/

Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 29 June 2018 02:52 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

Just finishing up The Takeover. This book is completely bonkers in the best possible way.

cwkiii, Wednesday, 24 July 2019 02:20 (four years ago) link

most of them are!

TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 July 2019 02:23 (four years ago) link

Haha very true.

cwkiii, Wednesday, 24 July 2019 02:23 (four years ago) link

Yup

U or Astro-U? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 24 July 2019 17:39 (four years ago) link


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