Hidden Possibilities

HIDDEN POSSIBILITIES

Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark

Edited by ROBERT E. HOSMER JR.

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

Manufactured in the United States of America

Robert E. Hosmer Jr., “‘Fascinated by Suspense’: An Interview with Muriel Spark,” originally appeared in a slightly different version in Salmagundi (Spring– Summer 2005). Copyright © Robert E. Hosmer Jr.

John Lanchester, “In Sparkworld,” originally appeared in the New York Review of Books, November 18, 2004. Reprinted by permission of The New York Review of Books.

Doris Lessing, “Now You See Her, Now You Don’t,” originally appeared in Time Bites: Views and Reviews (London: Fourth Estate, 2004). Copyright © 2004 by Doris Lessing. Reprinted by kind permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd., London, on behalf of Doris Lessing.

Frank Kermode, “Unrivalled Deftness: The Novels of Muriel Spark,” originally appeared as the introduction to Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; The Girls of Slender Means; The Driver’s Seat; The Only Problem (New York: Everyman’s Library, Random House, 2004). Reprinted by permission of Everyman’s Library, Random House, 2004.

John Mortimer, “The Culture of an Anarchist: An Interview with Muriel Spark,” originally appeared in the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, March 20, 1988. Reprinted by permission of the Sunday Telegraph, The Telegraph Group Ltd., 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DT.

Muriel Spark, “What,” “Elegy in a Kensington Churchyard,” and excerpt from “The Grave That Time Dug,” reprinted by permission of Muriel Spark, Penelope Jardine, and Georges Borchardt, Inc.

John Updike, “Stonewalling Toffs,” originally appeared in The New Yorker, February 12, 2001, copyright © 2001 John Updike. It has also appeared in John Updike, Due Considerations: Essays and Criti - cisms (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007). Copyright © 2007 by John Updike. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hosmer, Robert E. Hidden Possibilities : Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark / Robert Ellis Hosmer. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-03099-5 (paperback) ISBN-10: 0-268-03099-5 (paper) 1. Spark, Muriel—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PR6037.P29Z68 2014 823'.914—dc23

2013044542

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1 Robert E. Hosmer Jr. Biographical Note: Muriel Camberg Spark (1918–2006) 11

T H E W O R K one The Large Testimony of Muriel Spark 17 Gabriel Josipovici two Muriel Spark’s Fiction: A Context 36 Joseph Hynes three “A Spirit of Vast Endurance”: Muriel Spark, 51 Poet and Novelist Robert E. Hosmer Jr. four Breaking Free of the Grave: Muriel Spark’s Uses 71 of Humor and the Supernatural Regina Barreca five “Fully to Savour Her Position”: Muriel Spark 86 and Scottish Identity Gerard Carruthers six Unrivalled Deftness: The Novels of Muriel Spark 107 Frank Kermode

© UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME vi Contents seven The Lightness of Muriel Spark’s Novels 119 Dan Gunn eight Muriel Spark and the Peters Pan 144 John Glavin nine Elliptical and Inconsequential Ladies: 160 Muriel Spark, Jane Bowles, Penelope Fitzgerald, and the texte contestant David Malcolm ten Stonewalling Toffs 182 John Updike eleven In Sparkworld 187 John Lanchester

T H E L I F E twelve Muriel Spark: Scottish by Formation 199 Alan Taylor thirteen Now You See Her, Now You Don’t 212 Doris Lessing fourteen The Culture of an Anarchist: An Interview 220 with Muriel Spark John Mortimer fifteen “Fascinated by Suspense”: An Interview with 227 Dame Muriel Spark Robert E. Hosmer Jr. sixteen “Now I Know They Want Me Back-Stage” 256 Barbara Epler

Bibliography of Works by Muriel Spark 265

Notes on Contributors 275

Index 280