The Bachelors displays the best of Sparkian satire, placing her at the heart of a great literary tradition alongside Waugh and Trollope, Wilde and Wodehouse. It demands rediscovery.
''It''s easy to see why Waugh admired The Bachelors. On one level, it is a blithely carnivorous satire in the Waugh mould. The bachelors of the title - almost the only men we meet in the narrative - are the thirty-something male barristers, teachers, journalists and museum attendants of a small patch of West London. They lead inturned, doddery, superannuated lives, pottering between grocers, coffee-houses, bedsits and the houses of their mothers and aunts. But the comedy here is serious in a way that Waugh''s satanically energetic comedies of misery rarely are . . . comedies of English manners have seldom been darker'' Daily Telegraph
''My admiration for Spark''s contribution to world literature knows no bounds. She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the crème de la crème'' Ian Rankin
''Muriel Spark''s novels linger in the mind as brilliant shards, decisive as a smashed glass is decisive'' John Updike, New Yorker
- | Author: Muriel Spark
- | Publisher: Canongate Books
- | Publication Date: Dec 03, 2015
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language:
- | Binding: Paperback / softback
- | ISBN-13: 9781782117551
- | ISBN-10: 1782117555
- Author:
- Muriel Spark
- Publisher:
- Canongate Books
- Publication Date:
- Dec 03, 2015
- Binding:
- Paperback / softback
- ISBN-13:
- 9781782117551
- ISBN10:
- 1782117555