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Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography
by
Muriel Spark
This autobiography, now in paperback, offers a wonderfully vivid account of the people and places that inspired so much of Muriel Spark's writing, such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Here, readers will find high comedy, betrayal, rigorous intelligence, the odd twist of faith, and mysterious grace--all the elements that have delighted her readers for more than 35 years.
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Paperback
,
12 pages
Published
September 29th 1994
by Mariner Books
(first published 1992)
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Community Reviews
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Spark has many fine nuggets in this volume. As author of
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
, she introduces the reader to the teacher in her life, the woman who inspires the character. I love how she admires this teacher for being so different from the others in her school, how Miss Kay speaks brashly of her own life, her own feelings and thoughts. This may be one way that Spark is inspired to become a writer. Spark continues by describing a number of eccentric teachers in her schooling, all of whom
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A clear eyed unsentimental autobiography. A model for others perhaps
I finished reading this memoir yesterday (February 2, 2009) and found it interesting since the author wrote so well and clearly that we readers can understand how her literay life had developed and why. It all started some 35 years ago in the late 70s when I watched a film entitled, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in a movie theatre on Sukhumvit Road (defunct, a small shopping mall instead there). The film was so wonderful that I kept wondering who wrote such a fantastic novel. I'm not sure how
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I should probably have read this before reading the large authorized biography. Still, that's not really a problem. The two books have different goals and points of view. This memoir, read as literature, is quite engaging for the first five chapters, and follows in a perhaps now-defunct tradition of autobiographies by writers or other highly literate figures wherein the author beautifully evokes the past without dwelling heavily on her/his own psychology and feelings. Chapter six, which deals wi
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I am essentially completely unfamiliar with most of Spark's works; I took this off the shelf because it was shelved near Death and the Maidens, and I felt like some good British-literature-author-writing over the recent rainstorms. I enjoyed the description of her childhood in Scotland and some of her World War II and post-war descriptions. She has a very arch wit and I felt many raised eyebrows and significant looks from her, which was fun. However, she seemed to gloss over quite a lot of heart
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I like Muriel Sparks a lot, most anything she has written. She wrote this autobiography when she was 37, partly, I think to offset untruths that were already emerging. She is mostly kind and witty about these people who are dishing out nonsense, but she is a woman who has a firm grip on reason. I enjoyed this; just not as much as some of her fiction.
Witty, spunky, high-spirited. I haven't read any of Spark's work previously, and I plan to. A wonderfully observant and detailed romp through Edinburgh in the 1930s; thoughts on being white in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa around 1940; wartime UK; and delightfully narrated nasty little trials and tests of a young woman in a position of professional authority. Great fun, though I don't disagree with other readers' comments that the subject of Spark's son seems a bit dubious. It is
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Jul 16, 2015
Rebecca
is currently reading it
Snagged on a whim from the recently returned library book cart after seeing the first three sections in the first chapter are subtitled Bread, Butter and Tea. I need cozy in the summertime you see.
I adore Muriel Sparks' novels. Reading her memoir illuminates context for several of her novels and characters, not least Jean Brodie. Unfortunately, what also comes through is that Spark can be very petty, carrying grudges over seemingly minor matters for decades, and airing them against people who are dead or who are not writers and therefore can't effectively answer. It's not an admirable aspect of her character. But overall, I loved the book, as I do all her writing.
I liked this, but started reading it at a bad time. I got about 1/3 of the way through before the library started breathing down my back and I had to return it (after several renewal attempts!). However, that said, I will get back to this. I really enjoyed what I did accomplish, but it's a relatively directionless memoir, so there wasn't anything enticing enough to pull me through it despite distractions.
Brilliantly written (as you would expect). Very interesting on her childhood in Edinburgh and her semi-secret war work. A bit light on how she felt about things.
I particularly disliked the part where she was spiteful about someone she didn't get on with. In my opinion a public work of literature is not the place for personal vendettas.
I particularly disliked the part where she was spiteful about someone she didn't get on with. In my opinion a public work of literature is not the place for personal vendettas.
If you haven't read Spark before, this probably isn't the starting place. But it was delightful if you already know her work. Some fragments are brilliant, others are just interesting. Read it on a flight.
This is pretty easy to enjoy: Spark has a light touch and (as you'd expect from her fiction) an observant eye and acerbic wit.
I'll never forget Muriel Spark's description of the Victoria Falls...
Found this book in Mary's home in Spain. Very interesting biography
Interesting, but I wanted 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 Eli ...more
More about Muriel Spark...
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate , the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eli ...more
“The sparkle and morning-freshness of the shop, and the butter-conjuring girl, formed a mind-picture which accompanied the whole of my youth.(about the Buttercup Dairy)”
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