The Edinburgh Companion to Muriel Spark

This Companion brings together an international line-up of authors in order to trace the forms, history, impact, reception and decisive themes of Spark's writing, from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to The Finishing School. It encompasses Spark's entire work - poetry, prose, and criticism - and looks at how matters of biography, geography, gender, identity, nation and religion are at work - and at play - in Spark's multi-faceted writing. It engages not only with these important cultural themes, but also with questions of form. It shows Spark as a consummate artist as well as a proactive and suasive thinker on social questions including the Welfare State, secularisation, decolonisation, and anti-psychiatry. The volume includes comparative studies of Spark looking at her alongside contemporaries including J M Coetzee, Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor. It ends by considering Spark's lasting legacy and continuing influence in the twenty-first century. Key Features *A collection of original, specially commissioned chapters by leading experts in the field *Covers the whole spectrum of Spark's work *Addresses the key issues and themes in Spark's work without losing sight of the questions of form and content *Provides original insights into the contexts of Spark's work as viewed through literary theory

Michael Gardiner is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Willy Maley is Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English Literature at the University of Glasgow.