Hidden Possibilities: Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268030995 ISBN 13: 9780268030995

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014

Synopsis

Described by David Lodge as “the most gifted and innovative writer of her generation,” Muriel Spark had a literary career that spanned from the late 1940s until her death in 2006, and included poems, stories, plays, essays, and, most notably, novels. The extensive bibliography of her works included in this collection reveals the astonishing output of a powerful and sustained creative spirit.

Hidden Possibilities gathers a distinguished group of writers from both sides of the Atlantic to offer an informed overview of Muriel Spark’s life and work. Critics have often read Spark in a somewhat narrow context―as a Catholic, a woman, or a Scottish writer. The essays in this volume, while making connections between these contexts, cumulatively situate her in a broader European tradition.

The volume includes interviews with Spark that cast light both on the course of her professional life and on her notably distinctive personality.

Contributors: Regina Barreca, Gerard Carruthers, Barbara Epler, John Glavin, Dan Gunn, Robert E. Hosmer Jr., Joseph Hynes, Gabriel Josipovici, Frank Kermode, John Lanchester, Doris Lessing, David Malcolm, John Mortimer, Alan Taylor, and John Updike.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert E. Hosmer Jr. is senior lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at Smith College.

Review:

“Hosmer has assembled a distinguished mix of academics and notable popular authors (e.g., John Updike and Doris Lessing) to address various aspects of Spark’s vast bibliography and how her life informed her work . . . [T]he contributors present a fairly well-rounded and informed perspective on Spark’s oeuvre. Perhaps the strongest points of the volume are the interviews with Spark, in which her passion for writing and her remarkable wit are center stage.” (Library Journal)

“Hidden Possibilities: Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark, edited by Robert Ellis Hosmer, gathers distinguished writers from both sides of the Atlantic to offer an overview of Spark’s life and work. Critics have often read Spark in a somewhat narrow context. These essays situate her in a broader tradition." (Publishers Weekly)

“. . . A satisfyingly eclectic mixture [of essays]. If the first section provides some much-needed sustained critical appreciation of Spark’s literary genius, the woman herself is brought wonderfully to life in the final essays . . .”. (Times Literary Supplement)

“[A]n excellent new collection of critical responses to the Scottish-born author’s work . . .”. (BookForum)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0268030995
• ISBN 13: 9780268030995
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Hosmer Jr. Robert E.