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Muriel Spark

Born

in Edinburgh, Scotland

February 01, 1918

Died

April 13, 2006

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories, Poetry

Influences

Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Søren Kierkegaard, James Hogg, Alain R ...more

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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 f ...more

Combine Editions
Muriel Spark’s books

Average rating: 3.65 · 132,296 ratings · 15,159 reviews · 233 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 3.69 avg rating — 61,445 ratings — published 1961 — 216 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, John Lanchester (Introduction) 3.58 avg rating — 13,988 ratings — published 1970 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Girls of Slender Means 3.65 avg rating — 8,457 ratings — published 1963 — 83 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Far Cry from Kensington 3.84 avg rating — 7,306 ratings — published 1988 — 69 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Memento Mori 3.61 avg rating — 7,450 ratings — published 1959 — 108 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Loitering with Intent 3.79 avg rating — 5,336 ratings — published 1981 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ballad of Peckham Rye 3.45 avg rating — 2,909 ratings — published 1960 — 62 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Comforters 3.59 avg rating — 2,213 ratings — published 1957 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie / The Girls of Slender Means / The Driver's Seat / The Only Problem 3.80 avg rating — 1,699 ratings — published 1999 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Symposium 3.70 avg rating — 1,708 ratings — published 1990 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Muriel Spark…

Quotes by Muriel Spark (?)

“She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.”
― Muriel Spark, Aiding and Abetting

1693 likes

“To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.”
― Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

tags: education, soul

1019 likes

“If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.”
― Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington

tags: cats, composition, concentration, focus, inspiration, writing

107 likes

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Polls

April 2023 Short Story/Novella Poll

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, 55 pages, 1997

48 votes, 23.6%

The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft, 25 pages, 1927

44 votes, 21.7%

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, 24 pages, 1842

39 votes, 19.2%

A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka84 pages, 1924

27 votes, 13.3%

The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, 103 pages, 1970

23 votes, 11.3%

In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 14 pages, 1922

11 votes, 5.4%

Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, 105 pages, 1941

11 votes, 5.4%

203 total votes

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