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Muriel Spark

Born

in Edinburgh, Scotland

February 01, 1918

Died

April 13, 2006

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories, Poetry

Influences

Søren Kierkegaard, James Hogg ...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: 3.66 · 118,379 ratings · 12,925 reviews · 203 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 3.70 avg rating — 56,921 ratings — published 1961 — 200 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) 3.61 avg rating — 10,714 ratings — published 1970 — 57 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 — 7,689 ratings — published 1963 — 73 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 3.83 avg rating — 6,499 ratings — published 1988 — 61 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 — 6,722 ratings — published 1959 — 95 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 3.78 avg rating — 4,754 ratings — published 1981 — 59 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 — 2,552 ratings — published 1960 — 51 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 3.60 avg rating — 1,955 ratings — published 1957 — 47 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 — 1,687 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
	The Finishing School 3.10 avg rating — 1,799 ratings — published 2004 — 33 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

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Quotes by Muriel Spark (?)

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

1700 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

1024 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

102 likes

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Polls

July 2024 New School Classic Poll

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, 1979, 562 pages

39 votes, 21.4%

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark, 1963, 140 pages

38 votes, 20.9%

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922, 232 pages

37 votes, 20.3%

The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt, 1958, 349 pages

26 votes, 14.3%

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, 1966, 169 pages

20 votes, 11.0%

Ways of Seeing by John Berger, 1972, 176 pages

12 votes, 6.6%

Jubilee by Margaret Walker, 1966, 497 pages

10 votes, 5.5%

182 total votes

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