The Complete Short Stories

By: Muriel Spark

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson, Emilia Fox, Richard E. Grant

From the cruel irony of A Member of the Family to the fateful echoes of The Go-Away Bird and the unexpectedly sinister The Girl I Left Behind Me, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability, displaying the acerbic wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her unique talent.

The Complete Short Stories is a collection to be loved and cherished, from one of the finest short-story writers of the twentieth century, rediscover it on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth with outstanding performances by Emilia Fox, Richard E. Grant and Juliet Stevenson.

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Brilliant readings; diversity of voices & dialects

The collection comprises Spark's complete opus; so the quality of stories is variable. The readings are brilliant — consistently compelling.

Patchy, but the best stories are good

Spark's novels are often elusive and enthralling but too many of these stories lack enough imaginative depth to make this collection really special. Having said that, there are some great stories to be found here amongst those of lesser interest. The early stories, largely set in South Africa at the time of WW2, are among the best.

Chapter headings

Why are there no titles of each chapter? I cannot see which story I am listening to.

What a pleasure

Intelligent,sharp and well written. What a remarkable woman to write this kind of work in those years!

An acquired taste??

I did finish the collection (though the 17 hours felt more like 17 weeks). I had read and enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and opted to give this a try. I wish I hadn't.

Some of the stories were interesting. Some had a lovely use of language. Most were rather bad. Some were really more like an outline of a story idea with no characterization (not her strong suit anyway). Some were just so darned predictable that a paragraph in I could tell what the "twist" was going to be and a good fair few were just rather pointless.

Unless you are a die-hard Spark fan, I would really give this a pass.

The narrators, however, did a yeoman's job with it.