The Finishing School: A Novel
Muriel Spark
Language: English
Pages: 181
ISBN: 0385512821
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The lethally witty and morally penetrating new novel by one of the world’s most admired writers
College Sunrise is a somewhat louche and vaguely disreputable finishing school located in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, run the school as a way to support themselves while he works, somewhat falteringly, on his novel. Into his creative writing class comes seventeen-year-old Chris Wiley, a literary prodigy whose historical novel-in-progress, on Mary Queen of Scots and the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, has already excited the interest of publishers. The inevitable result: keen envy, and a game of cat and mouse not free of sexual jealousy and attraction.
Nobody writing has a keener instinct than Muriel Spark for hypocrisy, self-delusion and moral ambiguity, or a more deliciously satirical eye. The Finishing School is certain to be another Spark landmark, an addition to one of the world’s most lauded and entertaining bodies of work.
mother and uncle. There was no father visible. They seemed to be well off and perfectly persuaded to Chris’s point of view. Rowland took him on. He had always, so far, taken everyone on who applied for entrance to College Sunrise, the result of which policy helped to give the school an experimental and tolerant tone. But we come back to Chris as he and his two friends were watched from the window by Rowland: of all the pupils Chris caused Rowland the most disquiet. He was writing a novel, yes.
murdered with their daggers David Rizzio, her secretary, musician and close friend, of whom Darnley had become exceedingly jealous. Rizzio was Italian, gifted, ambitious. His family came from Turin. According to Chris’s novel, the murder of Darnley was arranged by Rizzio’s family as an act of revenge. David Rizzio had brought to the Queen’s court in Edinburgh his younger brother Jacopo, who was at the center of the plot. Chris didn’t trouble to believe this theory one way or another, but he
He approached the bath. “You’ll kill me. Put that down,” yelled Rowland. Exactly as he spoke he jabbed Chris in the groin with his bath-brush and vaulted over the bath. At the same instant, Chris, in pain from the jab, bent forward so that the live electric stove fell into the water. The lights went out, as it was discovered later all over the house. Rowland felt a quiver up his leg. His heel had been seared. The water still sizzled with the heat of the fire, where Rowland was so very nearly
Southampton University, reading psychology. Joan Archer got a place in a good drama school, as she had for so long desired. Eventually, she was to write television scripts. Albert was kept on at the house as a gardener, and Claire as a domestic helper. Elaine got a job in Geneva at a travel agency. She frequently met Albert at weekends and public holidays. Her sister, Célestine, had a job at the restaurant of a skating rink in Lausanne, where she also progressed wonderfully at skating. Nina,
them in their sullen trade, Had seen the mice by moonlight play, And why should I feel less than they? We were all inmates of one place, And I, the monarch of each race, Had power to kill—yet, strange to tell! In quiet we had learn’d to dwell; My very chains and I grew friends, So much a long communion tends To make us what we are:—even I Regain’d my freedom with a sigh. They were to take the lake boat leaving Ouchy at 12:30, arriving at Chillon at 2 P.M. Célestine, Elaine’s sister,