Muriel SparkThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver's Seat, The Only Problem: Introduction by Frank Kermode (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

I purchased this collection of writings by Muriel Sparks by virtue of its inclusion in Everyman’s Library list of 100 essential books. Included are The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver’s Seat and The Only Problem. All of the works are novella length, with the first three weighing in at about 100 pages and the final story only slightly longer. Having just completed a very similar collection of works by James Cain, I can only say that while the Sparks works were moderately entertaining, they suffered in comparison to those of Cain.The most renowned of Ms. Sparks works, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie leads off the collection. Though it is relatively short, I cannot say that it moved along briskly, or kept my attention as you would expect from such a short story. Jean Brodie is a teacher of junior high girls, and her methods are somewhat unorthodox, as is her private life. Set in pre-World War II Edinburgh, Scotland, Miss Brodie identifies a group of young women and seeks to inculcate them with a much broader world view than ordinary for the straight laced, Episcopalian school for which she teaches. She is a world traveler and something of a libertine when viewed through the prism of her surroundings and the hierarchy of the school is constantly attempting to discover grounds for her termination. Despite her liberal social views as applied to teaching techniques, Miss Brodie is quite the Fascist in her politics. Only moderately entertaining, I give this work three stars.The Girls of Slender Means is only slightly more appealing. The story centers on a boarding house of sorts for young women of limited means in the immediate post World War II London. The primary character, a very minor publisher’s assistant, introduces the other women of the house (the May of Teck Club) as well as the outside forces that act upon them. Of primary interest to me were the details associated with life in London in the immediate aftermath of World War II. In that respect, it was educational and instructive. The underlying story however was relatively unremarkable. Three and a half stars.The third work, The Driver’s Seat, was very unusual, and as a result somewhat more intriguing. The story revolves around a young woman who is quite clearly mentally ill. She travels to southern Italy, apparently for the sole purpose of meeting a stranger and orchestrating her own murder. Like the other stories, at only 100 pages, you would expect a more tightly written, engaging pace, but such is not the case. Four stars in recognition of the originality and unusual topic.The final story, and the longest, is named The Only Problem. In this story, a somewhat eccentric, wealthy man leaves his kleptomaniac wife (Effie) and settles in a modest French house where he occupies himself by writing a critical piece on the Book of Job. He takes up with his wife’s sister, who then leaves him to live with the father of her sister’s baby. Meanwhile, Effie goes on a murderous rampage as part of a revolutionary cell, bringing police pressure on her estranged husband. As you can see, this story is all over the place. Not much to recommend it in my mind. Three stars.

I ordered this book as part of my Recession Reading Strategy (cheap classics). Muriel Spark's writing was astoundingly varied, but all the novellas have in common not-very-nice characters who embody not-very-nice human characteristics, hypocrisy front and center. Her novellas feature flash forwards and lots of casual sex, and are very, very funny.There's a lot of religious imagery here - the louche character in The Girls of Slender Means who is shocked into the priesthood when he witnesses a girl running back into a burning building to rescue a Schiaparelli evening gown, clambering over her doomed roommates in the process. (And yet, being too heavy to squeeze through a narrow window, she could have done nothing substantive for them, anyway.) In The Only Problem, a rich man who has retired to the French countryside to write a monograph on the Book of Job goes through his own trials with friends and press when his estranged wife goes from cheap, fashionable "revolutionary" sentiment (stealing gas-station chocolate) to leading her own little Baader-Meinhof Gang.The Driver's Seat is a just plain creepy tale of a woman looking for "her type," in this case someone to violently kill her.All are darkly funny - the crazy macrobiotic vegan who must have his orgasm a day, the sanctimonious aunt who travels to France to berate her nephew for his blasphemy and to sadly inform him that she has seen footage in a television documentary showing his wife climbing out of a double sleeping bag naked, adultery in a sack!, notable mainly for besmirching the family name.Spark's father was Jewish and her mother, Anglican, and she later converted to Roman Catholicism. She was a wild child herself, and complained of her whiny artist son in unmotherly dialogue straight out of her own writing, "He can't sell his lousy paintings, and I have had a lot of success. He keeps sending them to me and I don't know what to do with them. I can't put them on my wall. He's never done anything for me, except for being one big bore."

If Ms. Spark is still remembered, it's likely for one item in this collection, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," cinematically brought to life by the incomparable Maggie Smith at a tender age. Each of the four novellas in this economically priced collection is a small delight: each narrated with companionable ease by a fine writer who must have worked very hard to make it all read so simply. Each novella carries the author's unmistakable voice, but each is peopled with different characters, abounding in strong women. Each story has a very different theme and tone. The introduction, by Frank Kermode, is predictably insightful; the production quality of Everyman's Library is intact. A solid addition to anyone's fiction shelf.

These are brilliant novellas, especially Jean Brodie. I've never read another novel with a characterization exactly like that of Miss Brodie. She's maddening and in some ways seems like someone you shouldn't like, but somehow she is convincing and unforgettable, perhaps like some teachers we might remember, if we knew them well.

I liked the hard cover edition and it was delivered as described by the seller.

She’s brilliant!

The headlline novel and the other stories are well told and evoke the period when they were written with much style.

Interesting period story.

Great service at a great price. 5*

A good insight into the education system in the thirties although I think Miss Brodie would have done things her way whatever the period. An enjoyable semi-classic.