Virago Symposium Спарк Мюриэл

Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics • Remember you must die • Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she, nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off, exposing post and present duplicities, self-deception and blackmail. Nobody is above suspicion • Witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more

К комплект вошли книги: Спарк М. "Баллада о предместье. Memento mori"; Вольф К. "Кассандра. Медея"; Ибаргуэнгойтия Х. "Убейте льва. Августовские молнии"; Мерль Р. "Уик-энд на берегу океана"

When Mrs Hawkins tells Hector Bartlett he is a pisseur de copie , that he urinates frightful prose , little does she realise the repercussions. Holding that no life can be carried on satisfactorily unless people are honest Mrs Hawkins refuses to retract her judgement, and as a consequence, loses not one, but two much-sought-after jobs in publishing. Now, years older, successful, and happily a far cry from Kensington, she looks back over the dark days that followed, in which she was embroiled in a mystery involving anonymous letters, quack remedies, blackmail and suicide

Witty yet elegant, Territorial Rights is a celebration of human imperfection and complexity, with as many shifting identities, wardrobe changes, and sumptuous settings as a comic opera • Robert wants nothing more than to become a serious art historian. But his hopes for an academic life are put on hold when he's driven from London to Venice to escape one lover and seek out another: the enigmatic Bulgarian refugee Lina Pancev. In Venice, Robert encounters a grand carnival of lust, lies, blackmail, cocktail parties and regicide. As he chases Lina, his heart's desire, the city itself provides a priceless education in love, art and beauty

In Muriel Spark's fantastic first novel, the only things that aren't ambiguous are her matchless originality and glittering wit • 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

Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981 • Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true. Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters (especially Sir Quentin's batty mother), Sparks's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing

Annabel Christopher is every inch the star: a glamorous actress with a devoted, handsome husband. To keep the paparazzi and her adoring public under her spell, her perfect image must be carefully cultivated, whatever the cost. Beneath the facade, though, her husband cannot bear her or their vapid existence. Envious of her success, he plots his revenge and stages a scandal even Annabel will find a challenge to recover from

"Кенсингтон, как давно это было" - роман Мюриэл Спарк (1918-2006), признанного классика английской литературы XX века • Вполне счастливая, хотя уже не молодая женщина Агнес Хокинз, путешествуя с мужем по Италии, постоянно возвращается мыслями в далекий 1954 год, к своей наполненной драматическими событиями жизни в Лондоне, в Южном Кенсингтоне: работе в издательстве, доведенном безумным владельцем до полного краха, упоенной борьбе с бездарными авторами и, конечно же, борьбе с собственной полнотой (рецепт прост - можно есть и пить все как всегда, только половину каждого блюда оставлять на тарелке) • Агнес, тогда молодая вдова погибшего на войне солдата, оказывается вовлеченной в драматические события: ее соседка по меблированным комнатам польская портниха Ванда получает анонимные письма с угрозами, подвергается шантажу и в конце концов погибает

A man of devilish charm and enterprising spirit, Dougal Douglas is employed to revitalize the ailing firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley. He succeeds, but not quite in the way his employer intended. Strange things begin to happen as Dougal exerts an uncanny influence on the inhabitants of Peckham Rye and brings lies, tears, blackmail and even murder into the lives of all he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to Beauty, the resident femme fatale, and even Mr Druce, the unsuspecting Managing Director himself

'Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions' • In the May of Teck Club - a London hostel 'three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit' - the young lady residents do their best to act as if the war never happened. They practice elocution, and jostle one another over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. But behind the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations they hide some tragically painful secrets and wounds. 'You girls are my vocation... I am dedicated to you in my prime'

'You girls are my vocation . . . I am dedicated to you in my prime' • Miss Jean Brodie is a schoolmistress with a difference. She is proud, cultured and romantic but her educational ideas are highly progressive and even deeply shocking. So when she decides to transform a group of 'special girls' into the creme de la creme at Marcia Blaine School they are soon known, perhaps suspiciously, as the Brodie set • Introduced to an unsettling world of adult games and curious intrigues, the Brodie Set know that they are privileged. Yet there is a price to pay - they must give Miss Brodie their undivided loyalty

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