I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in an undergraduate British Women Writers class in 2007. In retrospect, I’m grateful that it was included. It’s really interesting to consider her in a tradition that includes people like Margery Kempe. I really enjoyed that novel then and read several more of her works on my own.
I am, of course, intrigued by the O’Connor comparison. I want to think about that more.
Love love love this! I started reading Muriel Spark last year and fell in love with her writing. I can't wait to dive in more, and I was baffled when I found out none of my peers read her. Thank you for writing this! It makes me want to pick up another Spark novel.
Great essay! I agree that women (writers and otherwise) are consistently judged for their "bad" behaviour (by which read: unconventional). I have been a lifelong fan of Spark and her writing ever since discovering Miss Jean Brodie and falling in love with both Spark's terse prose, and darkly funny female characters. I found her so refreshing! I have written a couple of essays on my newsletter about her, one on Brodie and one on her subversive novel The Driver's Seat, which I would highly recommend (the book, not my essay!) I have just enjoyed watching an old production on BBC4 of her novel Memento Mori, which was superb. The Girls of Slender Means is another great novel. As you can tell, I'm big fan 😀
I recently got an email from the New Yorker with a link to the original issue with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.. and read it for the first time. Mind blown. Thanks for this. She was a fascinating writer.
I've only ever read Miss Jean Brodie but living in Edinburgh, I'm intrigued by Spark and this year she's entered my consciousness more than ever - perhaps a sign that I really must read more by her. I'm almost more drawn to her work through knowing that she was "difficult". I imagine it was difficult to be "difficult" back then.
Great essay! I'm a big fan of Muriel Spark's writing. I read Momento Mori first, in high school; I can't think how that book made its way into my hands, but I loved it. I just checked and I have 15 of her novels on my shelf, all read at least once in the last 40 years, and the complete short stories on audio. Her life has a few interesting parallels with Doris Lessing (another favorite of mine), both were criticized for leaving their children in order to live their own lives. And she holds up very well to being reread. I found The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie both funnier and more sinister when I read it again than I had remembered. Anyone new to her is in for a treat!
This was beautiful. I have never heard of her and naturally 2 things can be true at once. She could be a great writer and a horrible person in the actual sense of the word, but it is interesting but not surprising that the slant is always on the audacity of her behaving like a man. Maybe she was lovely and the act of leaving the patriarchal fold made her “difficult” a “diva” “precious” where she was just as likely to just not have time for men like so many of us are finding more and more. My wife is a writer not by career yet but we are working on it. I will happily be her Jardine. I love her work and if she gets to write, I get to read it.
Yes, I studied Spark at school, love her. Catherine McCormack talks about monster artist women in her book ‘Women in the Picture’ and I love what she writes here: “…monsters give us a new way of looking, because they themselves look head on at the male gaze and disrupt it.” Muriel Spark definitely did that!
Fascinating. I have heard of Muriel Sparks, but I've not read anything by her. She would be terrific subject for a biographical novel. Based on what you wrote, she reminds me a lot of Mary Wollstonecraft, a woman who went against the grain and whose reputation suffered deeply for it. After MW died, she was skewered by the establishment for having a child out of wedlock, etc., etc., and she was forgotten for many years until the US and British suffrage movements in the mid-1800s help resurrect her. A well-written biofiction would surely help ressurect Muriel Sparks! Now there's a writing project for you, Anne... :)
I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in an undergraduate British Women Writers class in 2007. In retrospect, I’m grateful that it was included. It’s really interesting to consider her in a tradition that includes people like Margery Kempe. I really enjoyed that novel then and read several more of her works on my own.
I am, of course, intrigued by the O’Connor comparison. I want to think about that more.
Looking forward to more from you about women authors etc. So important to. Ring them back to light. Good time for it I think
She was, and is, the bomb. I’ve written about her, and you’ve inspired me all over again. Thank you for this homage, truly.
Love love love this! I started reading Muriel Spark last year and fell in love with her writing. I can't wait to dive in more, and I was baffled when I found out none of my peers read her. Thank you for writing this! It makes me want to pick up another Spark novel.
Great essay! I agree that women (writers and otherwise) are consistently judged for their "bad" behaviour (by which read: unconventional). I have been a lifelong fan of Spark and her writing ever since discovering Miss Jean Brodie and falling in love with both Spark's terse prose, and darkly funny female characters. I found her so refreshing! I have written a couple of essays on my newsletter about her, one on Brodie and one on her subversive novel The Driver's Seat, which I would highly recommend (the book, not my essay!) I have just enjoyed watching an old production on BBC4 of her novel Memento Mori, which was superb. The Girls of Slender Means is another great novel. As you can tell, I'm big fan 😀
loved this and also, from the cover you shared, i am glad the go-away bird has been immortalised in literature as it deserves
I recently got an email from the New Yorker with a link to the original issue with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.. and read it for the first time. Mind blown. Thanks for this. She was a fascinating writer.
https://x.com/bbcarchive/status/1647586388274216963?s=61&t=nTJL_r9Pe8xmUaS-pTKAmQ
I've only ever read Miss Jean Brodie but living in Edinburgh, I'm intrigued by Spark and this year she's entered my consciousness more than ever - perhaps a sign that I really must read more by her. I'm almost more drawn to her work through knowing that she was "difficult". I imagine it was difficult to be "difficult" back then.
Thanks Ann for putting Muriel Spark back on my radar again. I haven’t read anything by her in a long time and am going to rectify that!
Thank you, Ann, I’m glad you enjoyed it. How wonderful that you have fifteen of her novels on your shelf. Doris Lessing intrigued me as well.
Great essay! I'm a big fan of Muriel Spark's writing. I read Momento Mori first, in high school; I can't think how that book made its way into my hands, but I loved it. I just checked and I have 15 of her novels on my shelf, all read at least once in the last 40 years, and the complete short stories on audio. Her life has a few interesting parallels with Doris Lessing (another favorite of mine), both were criticized for leaving their children in order to live their own lives. And she holds up very well to being reread. I found The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie both funnier and more sinister when I read it again than I had remembered. Anyone new to her is in for a treat!
Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin is my favourite read so far this year 💛
This was beautiful. I have never heard of her and naturally 2 things can be true at once. She could be a great writer and a horrible person in the actual sense of the word, but it is interesting but not surprising that the slant is always on the audacity of her behaving like a man. Maybe she was lovely and the act of leaving the patriarchal fold made her “difficult” a “diva” “precious” where she was just as likely to just not have time for men like so many of us are finding more and more. My wife is a writer not by career yet but we are working on it. I will happily be her Jardine. I love her work and if she gets to write, I get to read it.
Yes, I studied Spark at school, love her. Catherine McCormack talks about monster artist women in her book ‘Women in the Picture’ and I love what she writes here: “…monsters give us a new way of looking, because they themselves look head on at the male gaze and disrupt it.” Muriel Spark definitely did that!
Fascinating. I have heard of Muriel Sparks, but I've not read anything by her. She would be terrific subject for a biographical novel. Based on what you wrote, she reminds me a lot of Mary Wollstonecraft, a woman who went against the grain and whose reputation suffered deeply for it. After MW died, she was skewered by the establishment for having a child out of wedlock, etc., etc., and she was forgotten for many years until the US and British suffrage movements in the mid-1800s help resurrect her. A well-written biofiction would surely help ressurect Muriel Sparks! Now there's a writing project for you, Anne... :)