The Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark
**Overview of The Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark**
"The Stories of Muriel Spark" is a collection featuring twenty-seven short stories penned by the notable Scottish author Muriel Spark over a span of thirty years. This volume includes six original stories alongside others previously published in earlier collections, primarily set in post-World War II settings across England, Scotland, and Africa. Spark's narratives often employ a first-person perspective, focusing on the intricacies of human behavior, notably among female characters. Thematically, the stories explore various subjects, including supernatural occurrences, moral corruption, societal hypocrisy, and the plight of "lost souls."
Spark's work delves into the complexities of female identity and ambition, illustrating how characters navigate societal expectations and personal desires. Her stories often feature women facing moral dilemmas, with some embracing malevolence while others struggle for self-respect. Through irony and satire, Spark critiques the eccentricities and moral failures of her characters, exposing their shortcomings and hypocrisies. The supernatural elements in her tales frequently serve to highlight the moral consequences of her protagonists' actions. Overall, Spark's collection offers a nuanced examination of feminine experience and the darker aspects of human nature, inviting readers to reflect on the choices and fates of her characters.
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The Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark
First published: 1985
Type of work: Short stories
Form and Content
The Stories of Muriel Spark contains twenty-seven short stories written over a thirty-year period. Six original stories are included in this volume, while the remainder had appeared in earlier collections. The settings are modern times, usually post-World War II, in various locations, such as England, Scotland, and Africa. Although Muriel Spark’s use of point of view is varied, nineteen of the stories are first-person narratives. Her focus is the observation of human behavior, particularly of female characters. The themes of the stories can be divided into four subject groups: supernatural stories, stories about corruption and evil, stories exposing foolishness and hypocrisy, and stories featuring “lost souls.”
The tales containing supernatural elements often feature women protagonists who encounter strange phenomena, as does the title character in “Miss Pinkerton’s Apocalypse” when a flying Spode china saucer sweeps through her antique shop. In “The Executor,” Susan Kyle is troubled by the spirit of her late uncle until she discloses the missing pages of his manuscript and gives up her notion of writing the last chapter of his unfinished novel to publish as her own instead. Spark is at her best in “The Portobello Road,” which is narrated by a ghost named Needle, who has been murdered by her friend George and comes back to pay him a visit.
Spark’s stories of corruption and evil often feature controlling women who seek power. “The Pawnbroker’s Wife” and “The Curtain Blown by the Breeze” are set in Africa and portray two female characters whose manipulative desires bring disastrous results. In “Bang-Bang You’re Dead” and “The Ormolu Clock,” two ambitious women use their intelligence and determination to acquire success at the expense of others. Spark uses a complex narrative in “Bang-Bang You’re Dead” that juxtaposes the past and present to reveal the unfeeling nature of the main character, Sybil. In “The Ormolu Clock,” Frau Lublonitsch works tirelessly to make her Austrian Inn a commercial success. While she appears “undefined and dumpy” in her boots and brown apron, the narrator discovers that Frau Lublonitsch is ruthless and ambitious in eliminating her competitors.
In “Daisy Overend,” “You Should Have Seen the Mess,” “The Black Madonna,” and “A Member of the Family,” female protagonists are portrayed as hypocritical or foolish. Spark satirizes the women, because they never learn from their mistakes or see themselves as they really are. The narrator in “Daisy Overend” takes delight in conspiring with the audience to expose Daisy, a stunted social climber, trying to succeed as a 1940’s socialite with a flapper mentality left over from the 1920’s. Daisy’s “tawdry” garters left in the drawing room during her soiree prove to be her undoing. In “You Should Have Seen the Mess” and “A Member of the Family,” both protagonists, Lorna and Gwen, lack common sense. They live by superficial values, judging others by appearances and expecting to be judged themselves by the same shallow standard. In “The Black Madonna,” Lou Parker prays to a Madonna carved from black wood; she asks for a child of her own. Yet when the child is born, Lou rejects her baby daughter because she has black skin. While priding herself on being tolerant of people of all races during the course of the story, Lou rejects her own child based on skin color; thus, Spark exposes Lou’s hypocrisy and misplaced values.
The fourth group of stories centers on individuals who are somehow “lost” or isolated from the society. In “ ‘A Sad Tale’s Best for Winter’” a middle-aged man dies contemplating corruption. In “Come Along Marjorie,” an assembly of recovering neurotics watch Marjorie’s decline from reality to madness. In “The Go-Away Bird,” Daphne, the female protagonist, is murdered on her return to Africa during her search to find herself and her home.
Context
Spark presents an array of female characters in The Stories of Muriel Spark. She is concerned with twentieth century morals and manners without being a heavy-handed moralist. Spark’s stylized satire exposes the eccentricities and hypocrisies of her age. Though Spark is best known for her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), her short stories also reflect her interest in exploring human behavior in a world in which one must choose between good and evil.
Spark invites her readers to identify with her characters and also to evaluate them. In some cases, the distance that Spark creates as part of her narrative structure makes it impossible for the reader to be anything but an evaluator of the deeds of her protagonists. She portrays women involved in a search for identity; some willingly embrace malevolence while others search for self-respect. Spark’s feminists do not seek special rights for women, nor do they view themselves as victims oppressed by society. Yet her characters, such as Needle in “The Portobello Road,” do seek to find themselves.
When her women characters become victims, it is usually because they are overcome by outside forces of evil, as is Daphne in “The Go-Away Bird.” Other characters meet with disaster through their own willingness to engage in evil, as does Sonia Van der Merwe in “The Curtain Blown by the Breeze.” Spark’s grasping females, such as Frau Lublonitsch and Mrs. Jan Cloote, are intent on imposing their will on others, regardless of the consequences. Even less sympathy is afforded to hypocritical women, such as Lou Parker in “The Black Madonna” and Gwen in “A Member of the Family,” because Spark implies that a woman unable to face the truth is a traitor to herself.
Spark’s tone is ironic or satiric. Supernatural elements are often used in her plots to bring judgment regarding a character’s vice or sin. She is adept at illustrating the slightly macabre, evil, or hypocritical nature of human beings. While her characters might never be thoroughly explained psychologically, they are believable. She reveals a thorough understanding of the feminine mind—the struggles that women face in a search for identity—and the supernatural forces that shape the unseen elements of contemporary society.
Bibliography
Bold, Alan. Muriel Spark. London: Methuen, 1986. Bold is concerned with the relationship between Spark’s personal background and the development of her characters, particularly links between Spark’s religious experience and the religious elements of her fiction. He includes biographical information and then discusses Spark’s works in chronological order, specifically the novels. An extensive bibliography is included, listing criticism, articles, essays, interviews, and books related to Spark and her work.
Hynes, Joseph. Critical Essays on Muriel Spark. New York: G. K. Hall, 1992. Hynes’s extensive collection contains three sections. The first focuses on Spark’s life and art. The second group contains general criticism of Spark’s themes, both positive and negative. The remaining eighteen essays discuss Spark’s individual works, her novels in particular.
Kirkus Reviews. LIII, August 1, 1985, p. 750.
Library Journal. CX, October 1, 1985, p. 115.
The New Republic. CXCIII, October 14, 1985, p. 40.
The New York Times Book Review. XC, October 20, 1985, p. 1.
Newsweek. CVI, September 16, 1985, p. 70.
Publishers Weekly. CCXXVIII, August 16, 1985, p. 60.
Sproxton, Judy. The Women of Muriel Spark. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Spark’s female characters are discussed in four chapters under the topics of mature women, women of power, women as victims, and narrative and faith. “Narrative and Faith” is a chapter summation of Spark’s vision of Christianity and her worldview. Each chapter is devoted to a discussion of specific women characters in Spark’s novels. While the work does not contain a bibliography, a biography of Spark is included.
Walker, Dorothea. Muriel Spark. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Walker is interested in the vision underlying Spark’s plots and characters, particularly in her novels. The seven chapters are organized by themes. An important feature in Walker’s volume is an extensive annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Washington Post Book World. XV, September 29, 1985, p. 5.
Whittaker, Ruth. The Faith and Fiction of Muriel Spark. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982. Whittaker’s work elaborates on the diversity of Spark’s themes, meanings, and purpose. The chapter divisions are organized according to topics: religion, style, structure, and form. Limited primarily to a discussion of Spark’s novels. Includes a biographical section, as well as an extensive bibliography.