'There are two plots in The Comforters. One is fanciful and improbable; the other imaginative and convincingly real. The first is charming; the second disturbing… There is evidence of what would come to be recognised as the characteristic Spark touch: the unreal plot is presented in realistic style… the real one engages with religious mysteries and flirts with the supernatural… Spark is a comic novelist… She is a mercurial, a slippery, writer. Now you see her, now you don’t. You think you have grasped her meaning; then it eludes you… What an unusual, and unusually confident first novel this is… I was eighteen when I first read The Comforters. It delighted me then; it still delights me now, sixty years on…' From the introduction by Allan Massie
This is one novel in the absolutely glorious, must-have, complete collection of all 22 novels by Muriel Spark. This series is a wonderful way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark’s birth. Edited by Alan Taylor, author of Appointment In Arezzo, A Friendship with Muriel Spark, each perfectly sized and beautiful hardback book is introduced by a leading writer. Each introduction, while individually touching on thoughts and feelings, mentions the originality, the wit and humour, the cleverness of the writing. Whether an existing fan, or new to her works, this collection from one of our greatest writers, beckons, and quite simply, just asks to be read and re-read. ~ Lovereading.co.uk
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
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'The greatest Scottish novelist of modern times.' Ian Rankin
In this first novel by Muriel Spark - author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - the only things that aren't ambiguous are Spark's matchless originality and glittering wit.
With an introduction by Ali Smith.
Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of her every thought and action. She has an unusual problem - she realises she is in a novel. Her fellow characters are also possibly deluded: Laurence, her former lover, finds diamonds in a loaf of bread - could his elderly grandmother really be a smuggler? And Baron Stock, her bookseller friend, believes he is on the trail of England's leading Satanist.
'A master of malice and mayhem.' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
'Brilliantly original and fascinating.' Evelyn Waugh
'A light, clever, mirthful tour de force ... It disrupts and charms its readers with its combination of wit, precision, intelligence and hilarity. As vibrant as ever, more than fifty years after its first appearance.' Ali Smith
The Comforters features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Crime and Mystery, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
The Comforters is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Comforters was written by Muriel Spark and published by Virago an imprint of Little, Brown
The Comforters has 188 pages
Yes it is part of Virago Modern Classics series
£9.89
