Muriel Spark's Early Fiction - by James Bailey (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark's literary career.

Book Synopsis

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark's literary career. Spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it identifies formative instances of literary experimentation in texts including The Comforters, The Driver's Seat and The Public Image, with an emphasis on metafiction and the influence of the nouveau roman. As the first critical study to draw extensively on Spark's vast archives of correspondence, manuscripts and research, it provides a unique insight into the social contexts and personal concerns that dictated her fiction.

From the Back Cover

'Muriel Spark's Early Fiction is a magnificent achievement, bursting with revealing and original insights into Spark's fiction and the enduring preoccupations and working methods of this most singular author.' Bran Nicol, University of Surrey A compelling reappraisal of Spark's approach to literary experimentation This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark's literary career. Spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it identifies formative instances of literary experimentation in texts including The Comforters, The Driver's Seat and The Public Image, with an emphasis on metafiction and the influence of the nouveau roman. As the first critical study to draw extensively on Spark's vast archives of correspondence, manuscripts and research, it provides a unique insight into the social contexts and personal concerns that dictated her fiction. James Bailey is Honorary Research Fellow in English at the University of Sheffield. Cover image: At First, You May Only Be Able to Go This Far, Joseph Staples, collage, 8" x 10", 2014 (c) Joseph Staples, www.officesuppliesincorporated.com Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-7596-9 Barcode

Review Quotes

Muriel Spark's Early Fiction is a magnificent achievement, bursting with revealing and original insights into Spark's fiction and the enduring preoccupations and working methods of this most singular author. The result is a welcome addition to the process Spark scholars have embarked upon in recent years: extricating (or 'desegregating') the author from the various literary-critical categories that once confined her. Bailey's approach is flexible and multi-faceted by contrast, and draws on an impressively extensive use of previously unexamined archival material. The reader is provided with illuminating explorations of 'instances of narrative daring' during the first two decades of Spark's career which range from under-examined early short stories to key texts such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Driver's Seat, and place the emphasis on her enduring commitment to highlight the ways women become inscribed in oppressive cultural narratives. It is a rich and readable monograph which lives up to its ambition to establish a more complex and appropriate framework to discuss Spark in our current critical era, and will therefore be essential reading for those embarking on future studies of one of the most brilliant and unusual writers of the second half of the Twentieth Century.-- "Bran Nicol, University of Surrey"

I have been an avid reader of James Bailey's scholarly work on Muriel Spark and was very happy to see that work collected and expanded in this new book--Muriel Spark's Early Fiction: Literary Subversion and Experiments with Form. I particularly appreciate Bailey's attention to Spark's formal interests, which are characterized by multifariousness--a mélange of genres, and stylistic innovations.--Marilyn Reizbaum, Bowdoin College "Studies in the Novel"

James Bailey's new monograph, The Early Fiction of Muriel Spark, is a welcome and refreshing contribution to the well-trodden ground of Spark criticism. [...] a highly valuable addition to Spark studies, recommended for students as well as seasoned scholars, and anyone interested in post-war woman's writing.--Steven Harvie "The Kelvingrove Review"

James Bailey's thought-provoking book offers a refreshing and comprehensive interpretation of Spark's first decisive steps in a glittering literary career. [...] This book will prove helpful for general readers offered a fascinating glimpse of the complex contexts of Spark's early fiction, and valuable for scholars seeking a better understanding of Spark's writing process and formal innovations.--Kaiyue He, University of Glasgow "Textual Practice"

About the Author

James Bailey is Honorary Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. He is the co-editor, with Emma Young, of British Women Short Story Writers: The New Woman to Now (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) as well as author of articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Contemporary Women's Writing and European Journal of English Studies.