A Spark in Time Author:Muriel Spark, Linette Bruno As a teacher of English, holder of a Masters Degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris, Linette Bruno has taught English in the French island of Martinique for several years. Captivated by Muriel Spark's lively wit, and her skill in combining complicated narrative technique with richness of theme, she has undertaken to produce this work.
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A BBC news article which appeared at the time of Dame Muriel Spark's death described her as "one of the liveliest and most original literary talents to be discovered in Britain since the end of Word War II"
Like the famous Jacques in Shakespeare's "As You Like It", Muriel Spark seems to see:
"All the world's a stage/And all the men and women merely players/They have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts/His acts being seven ages..." Old people become babes again. School-boys (or girls) grow into their prime. Lovers, lawyers, bachelors, spinsters all make their way across the stage in her fiction. Their performances, during the brief moment they remain on stage, are observed and cleverly depicted under her skilful pen for the enjoyment of her readers.
Five novels, generally considered to be among her best, have been chosen to show how Muriel Spark manages to make those brief moments, mere spots in time, transcend time itself. They are: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", "The Girls of Slender Means", "The Mandelbaum Gate", "The Driver's Seat" and "Memento Mori".« less