RIP Muriel Spark

dido1

20 years ago

I am quite devastated to hear this, though I knew she was quite old.

Oh the last sentence of Jean Brodie is one of the most moving ever written: when Sandy (the nun) is asked what were the major influences on her life, she replies:

'There was a Miss Jean Brodie in her prime.'

It always makes me cry. What a superb book. Then there are 'Girls of Slender Means' which I revisited not long ago; and 'The Bachelors'; 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye'; the short story 'The Black Madonna'; and perhaps my favourite, 'Memento Mori', set in Hampstead in a community of very old people. One of them gets a mysterious phone call from a man saying 'Remember you must die', and soon all hell is let loose. It's hilarious and macabre.

RIP indeed, dear Dame Muriel. You gave, and still give me so much pleasure and food for thought.

Dido

cindydavid4

20 years ago

I've read several by her, including Brodie and Memento Mori, and have loved them. I have a book by her that takes place in Venice called Territorial Rights, its been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while. Think this would be a darn good time to read it.

She certainly lead a long and productive life. She will be missed, but certainly not forgotten

Related Discussions

ARS June & July 2010 Rose Show Winners

Q

Comments (0)

Replacing Bluestar igniters and spark module (36-inch RNB)

Q

Comments (38)

It's been a long time since I thought about this. I was having an issue recently that I think was probably just water in an igniter (overflow or from a pot put back on the stove to dry after cleaning). I'd been meaning to check back and remind myself what I did and maybe update if I change something out. I did notice that the screws attaching the igniters were pretty corroded. That may have been a bad material choice on my part. My quick and dirty troubleshooting would be to trade igniters from a working burner to a nonworking burner to decide between module and igniter. If the same burner still doesn't work, you might also check out the wiring to see if it's been pinched or otherwise has a problem. That's my mute-the-work-conference-call-and-type-real-quick response.

Book Endings

Q

Comments (38)

A bit of unfinished business before letting this thread sink into oblivion: I want to apologize for my seeming abandonment. I didn't intend it, but I got stuck in 'Ultima Thule'. Lydia, thank you for talking Annpan into giving us a hint about the Reginald Hill book. Annpan, I've acquired the first four Dalziel/Pascoe books. I hope I'm perceptive enough to figure out which is the clever one you've talked about. It will be fun, as I do enjoy Reginald Hill even when he's being extra expansive. I usually burn out on any series after about three or four books (unless I read them over several years with lots of time between), so I hope the book in question is one that I have! Lydia, re The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: the structure of the film is linear while the book is told in flashback. I can understand why it was changed for the film adaptation. Actually, Muriel Spark's way of telling the story annoyed me a few times, especially when, thunk!, she flashed forward to Sandy Stranger in the 1950s(?). This is typical shtick, though, for Spark as she employed it in at least a couple of her other books. Easy Rider: Yep, I agree, Lydia. It was rather the fashionable thing to do in the late 1960s and into the 1970s -- leave the reader/viewer perplexed and asking "that's it?" Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also comes to mind, and I think there were several others.

Memento Mori

Q

Comments (3)

Wow. Good for Dido. That's very impressive. I'm afraid I will be in the air when it first airs and away from my computer for at least two weeks after that. I will see if it's still up when I return. Congrats Dido!

woodnymph2_gw

20 years ago

"Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is one of my all-time favorites and I periodically re-read it. I agree, Dido, it is quite moving and also I found it laugh-out-loud funny in places. I had not realized Spark was a Catholic convert.

timallan

20 years ago

Though I haven't read a Spark novel in years, she has long been one of my favourite writers. I particularly admire her books The Girls of Slender Means, and Memento Mori.

veer

20 years ago

I heard a report on the BBC news about Dame Muriel Spark saying her books has been described by a critic as "If you had a cat it is the sort of work you might have expected it to have written, with its claws kept just within its paws."
Always a looker-on at events with little room for sentimentality.
Dido is too modest to mention it but she has just had her adaptation of Memento Mori recorded by the BBC. It will be on the air during May. If you have 'realplayer' or similar you should beable to receive it wherever you live.

ccrdmrbks

20 years ago

I just mentioned Sparks on the Pym thread-how sad. Brodie is a favorite of mine.
Dido-congratulations! That's very exciting. will it be on BBC America?

J C

20 years ago

Sad about Sparks and happy for Dido!

I will have to revisit Brodie.

cindydavid4

20 years ago

A tribute to Muriel Spark by Ruaridh Nicholl

Sunday April 16, 2006
The Observer

>There is a moment when an artist matters so much that their death is both a tragedy and an insignificance. For Spark, who loved an empty notebook, her death is insignificant because she filled so many notebooks, yet her death is also a tragedy because, somewhere in her home in Italy, there will be a notebook that will remain empty.

rosefolly

20 years ago

Congratulations to Dido.

You know, I can't remember if I ever read any of Muriel Sparks's books. They've always been around in the background. I do believe it is time to try her.

Rosefolly

carolyn_ky

20 years ago

I have only read a few of her books, but my favorite of those is A Far Cry from Kensington. I just loved it.

mumby

20 years ago

I read this thread wondering why I've never read any of her books - clearly an omission that needs to be corrected.

RIP Muriel Spark

Comments (11)

dido1

cindydavid4

Related Discussions

woodnymph2_gw

timallan

veer

ccrdmrbks

J C

cindydavid4

rosefolly

carolyn_ky

mumby

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US