Muriel Spark and campus novels – welcome to episode 149!
In the first half of this episode, we answer Lisa’s question: do we like campus novels? In the second half, we compare two novels by Muriel Spark. Not necessarily the Muriel Spark novels I thought we would be reading… turns out, Rachel read The Comforters instead of The Bachelors, so we compare that with Symposium instead!
If you’d like to come and see Rachel’s play, full details are here. I’ll be there on the Saturday!
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The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Hilary Mantel
Honourable Estates by Vera Brittain
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
Yesterday in the Back Lane by Bernice Rubens
The Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens
On the Calculation of Volume vol.2 by Solvej Balle
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Stoner by John Williams
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The Small Room by May Sarton
Anthony Trollope
The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge
Nice Work by David Lodge
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Masters by C.P. Snow
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
The History Boys by Alan Bennett
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Seasoned Timber by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
According to Mark by Penelope Lively
Stet by Diana Athill
A Bit of the Apple by Lennie Goodings
84, Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
The Only Problem by Muriel Spark
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark
Thank you for a 149th very entertaining and inspiring episode! I’ve listened to every one and my teetering tbrs are towering monuments to your many recommendations!
I would say ‘yes’ to campus novels, but obviously there are good ones and very bad ones. I remember sacrificing sleeping to racing to find out the conclusion to A Secret History. That was when I was relatively close in age to the main characters, in my twenties. Your discussion has prompted me to seriously consider a reread approximately 30 years later. I just hope I will cope with it, I recall it was quite dark and disturbing and my tolerance for that has definitely decreased over time.
I haven’t read any of the three (!) Spark’s novels you read. Loitering with Intent is my favourite too, Simon. I did reread The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for 1961 club, there were parts I did enjoy and it’s a novel I admire, but I don’t really love it. I think I feel too sorry for the characters!
Looking forward to episode 150. I’m afraid I haven’t thought of any questions though. I feel as if I know you both quite well thanks to your sharing about yourselves as well as your love of all things bookish; that’s one thing I really love about the podcast.
Thanks for discussing my question – and suggesting a few books that I’d not heard of! I’ve just finished reading ‘Moo’ by Jane Smiley, a satirical look at the lives of the staff and students of a fictional midwestern American university in the 1990s, which I really enjoyed.
I don’t know if this would count for the recommendations of ‘literary’ novels, but I enjoyed both reading and watching the TV adaptation of the Moonflower Murders (Anthony Horovitz), which has a publishing editor as the main protagonist. There is also the Victorian classic on the life of struggling authors, New Grub Street by George Gissing.
Another great episode. I was interested to hear Simon did not enjoy David Lodge’s Nice Work as many years ago I wrote about it in my Masters dissertation which explored Condition of England novels of the 1980s. I don’t remember Lodge writing about people going to the toilet, although I do remember Vic Wilcox was very proud he had four toilets in his house as he saw it as an indicator of his status!
I haven’t read much Spark, I’ve taught The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which went down well and recently I taught The Girls of Slender Means to quite a mixed reception. I read Loitering with Intent a long time ago and definitely want to read more of her work.
Congratulations on 150 episodes. I don’t have a question as such, but am interested in the significance of setting/location in novels. I’ve recently written a piece about Greenway House and Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly on my blog, and have ideas for many more pieces along these lines. I just wondered if setting/location is something which interests you?