The Ghost Stories of Muriel SparkNew Directions Publishing, 2003 - 135 pages I aim to startle as well as please," Muriel Spark has said, and in these eight marvelous ghost stories she manages to do both to the highest degree. As with all matters in the hands of Dame Muriel her spooks are entirely original. A ghost in her pantheon can be plaintive or a bit vengeful, or perhaps may not even be aware of being a ghost at all. One in fact is the ghost of a man who isn't even dead yet. Another takes the bus home from work, believing she is still alive, though she is haunted by an odious tune stuck in her head (which her murderer had been relentlessly humming), and distressed by a "feeling of incompletion." And a reflective ghost recalls her mortal days of enjoying "the glory of the world, as if it would never pass. Spark has a flair for confiding ghosts: "I must explain that I departed this life nearly five years ago. But I did not altogether depart this world. There were those odd things still to be done which one's executors can never do properly." In her case the odd things include cheerily hailing her murderer, "Hallo George!" and driving him mad. The remarkably nonchalant stories here include some of her most wicked and famous"The Seraph and the Zambesi," "The Hanging Judge," and "The Portobello Road"and they all gleam with that special Spark sheen, the quality The Times Literary Supplement has hailed as "gloriously witty and polished." |
Table des matières
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME | 1 |
THE SERAPH AND THE ZAMBESI | 22 |
THE LEAFSWEEPER | 36 |
ANOTHER PAIR OF HANDS | 62 |
THE EXECUTOR | 81 |
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abstract funeral afternoon Ananias and Sapphira asked attic Bulawayo Chapter Eleven Christmas course Cramer Crathie dining room dining-room Donaldson door Elaine Elise face famous poet Fanfarlo felt fetch friends gave George Forrester George's gone Hallo hand Harris tweed haystack heard heat Jaimie Johnnie Johnnie's ghost Justice Stanley Kathleen keep King's Cross kitchen knew Lady leaves living London looked Ma's Mark Letter marry Skinny masque Matilda Miss Geddes Miss Spigot months mother mulligatawny soup murder MURIEL SPARK Needle neral never night notebooks noticed orgasm Pentland Hills perhaps Portobello Road Rhodesia Roger Cook Rosemary Lawns Hotel round Saturday morning Scotland Seraph Sir Sullivan Stanley soldier stood stop STORIES OF MURIEL talk tell theater things thought told took trooper turned uncle uncle's walked week wife Winnie Winnie's woman wondered words Zimbabwe