About this Book

Muriel Spark is a prolific and popular novelist, and ever since the publication in 1957 of her earliest novel, The Comforters, she has excited critical praise and blame. The range of her work from the 'piety' of The Mandelbaum Gate to the deliberately enigmatic quality of Robinson is wide, and the structures of her books are often poetic in their economy. Despite the ambiguity of many of her novels, her random satire, her refusal to be committed to fiction, she has a contribution to make to contemporary fiction. 'She makes us look again at the world and the individuals we know'; writes Patricia Stubbs, 'she transfigures the commonplace', arguing that Miss Spark is a minor writer whose skill and seriousness should not be under-valued.

Muriel Spark was born in Edinburgh, moving later to Africa and London, places which all provided material for her novels. Initially she earned a living by editing and writing critical works; her creative energies were directed towards the composition of poetry, since she saw fiction as a 'second-rate' form. She won the Observer short story competition with 'The Seraph and the Zambesi', and wrote The Comforters at the specific invitation of Macmillan's, concentrating subsequently on novels, though she has produced two dramatic pieces, Voices at Play and Doctors of Philosophy. Her theme is often the craft of fiction; but she is also deeply preoccupied with the religious nature of life, as novels like Memento Mori and The Mandelbaum Gate show.

Patricia Stubbs is a Lecturer in English at the Berkshire College of Education. After graduating from University College, Cardiff, she has taught in schools and college. She has a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of London, and is currently pursuing related interests in modern fiction.