The Bachelors by Muriel Spark
A barrister, a priest, a detective, a lovelorn Irishman, a handwriting expert, a heinous spiritual medium . the very British bachelors of Muriel Spark's supreme 1960 novel come in every stripe. First found contentedly chatting in their London clubs and shopping at Fortnum's, the cozy bachelors are not set to stay cozy for long. Soon enough, the men are variously tormented--defrauded, stolen from, blackmailed, or pressed to attend horrid seances--and then plunged, all together, into the nastiest of lawsuits. At the center of that suit hovers pale, blank Patrick Seton, the medium. Meanwhile, horrors of every size plague the poor bachelors--from epileptic fits to forgeries, spiritualists foaming with protoplasm, and murder--and each horror delights, lit up by Spark's uncanny wit, at once malicious, funny, and deadly serious.
A wholly original presence in modern literature -- ANDREW MOTION
Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive -- JOHN UPDIKE * * New Yorker * *
I am dazzled by The BachelorsIt is the cleverest and most elegant of all Mrs Spark's clever and elegant books -- EVELYN WAUGH
She has a receptive and wholly distinctive genius -- A N WILSON * * Spectator * *
My admiration for Spark's contribution to world literature knows no bounds. She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the crème de la crème -- IAN RANKIN
A profoundly serious comic writer whose wit advances, never undermines or diminishes, her ideas * * New York Times Book Review * *
The care with which she uses words is matched by a gloriously carefree attitude. It's all part of her sanity, her breezy authorial self-confidence; and because of this I think that reading a blast of her prose every morning is a far more restorative way to start a day than a shot of espresso * * Daily Telegraph * *
Spark is a natural, a paradigm of that rare sort of artist from whom work of the highest quality flows as elementally as current through a circuit * * New Yorker * *
It's easy to see why Waugh admired The Bachelors. But the comedy here is serious in a way that Waugh's satanically energetic comedies of misery rarely are . . . comedies of English manners have rarely been darker * * Daily Telegraph * *
Muriel Spark's novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive -- JOHN UPDIKE * * New Yorker * *
I am dazzled by The BachelorsIt is the cleverest and most elegant of all Mrs Spark's clever and elegant books -- EVELYN WAUGH
She has a receptive and wholly distinctive genius -- A N WILSON * * Spectator * *
My admiration for Spark's contribution to world literature knows no bounds. She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the crème de la crème -- IAN RANKIN
A profoundly serious comic writer whose wit advances, never undermines or diminishes, her ideas * * New York Times Book Review * *
The care with which she uses words is matched by a gloriously carefree attitude. It's all part of her sanity, her breezy authorial self-confidence; and because of this I think that reading a blast of her prose every morning is a far more restorative way to start a day than a shot of espresso * * Daily Telegraph * *
Spark is a natural, a paradigm of that rare sort of artist from whom work of the highest quality flows as elementally as current through a circuit * * New Yorker * *
It's easy to see why Waugh admired The Bachelors. But the comedy here is serious in a way that Waugh's satanically energetic comedies of misery rarely are . . . comedies of English manners have rarely been darker * * Daily Telegraph * *
Muriel Spark, DBE, C.Litt., was born in Edinburgh in 1918 and educated in Scotland. A poet and novelist, she also wrote children's books, radio plays, the comedy Doctors of Philosophy and biographies of nineteenth-century literary figures, including Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë. Muriel Spark has garnered international praise and many awards, including the David Cohen Prize for Literature, the Ingersoll T.S. Eliot Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Boccaccio Prize for European Literature, the Gold Pen Award, the first Enlightenment Award and the Italia Prize for dramatic radio. She died in 2006.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781782117551 |
| ISBN 10 | 1782117555 |
| Title | The Bachelors |
| Author | Muriel Spark |
| Series | Canons |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Canongate Books |
| Year published | 2015-12-03 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |