Audiobooks by Muriel Spark

Die aus Bayern stammende Psychologin Dr. Hildegard Wolf hat sich nach einigen Jahren in verschiedenen Ländern in Paris niedergelassen und praktiziert dort als eine der gefragtesten Psychologen der Stadt. Das Besondere an ihrer Therapie ist die fast ausschließliche einseitige Gesprächsführung in der ersten Sitzung durch die Psychologin, ohne dass der Patient redet. Einer ihrer Patienten behauptet, der berüchtigte Kindermädchenmörder 'Lucky' Lord Lucan zu sein, welcher seit einigen Jahren als verschollen gilt. Die Psychiaterin ist verwirrt, da noch ein anderer Patient genauso behauptet Lord Lucan zu sein- und sie beginnt der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen. Doch bevor sie weitere Nachforschungen über die wahre Identität des Mörders aufdecken kann, wird sie schon von dem betrügerischen Duo erpresst. -

Muriel Spark (Author), Uta Kroemer (Narrator)

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Miss Jean Brodies bästa år

På en flickskola i mellankrigstidens Edinburgh samlar Miss Jean Brodie en frigjord, passionerad och högst målmedveten lärarinna en skara noggrant handplockade elever: de allra, allra bästa, hennes flickor, Brodies gäng. De mer konventionella skolämnena får ge vika för kärlek, politik och konst, och Miss Jean Brodie gör allt för att forma flickorna till starka och oberoende kvinnor. Samtidigt har hon kärleksaffärer med två av skolans manliga lärare, varav den ena är gift. »Tryggheten är inte det viktigaste«, manar hon sina elever. »Godhet, Sanning och Skönhet är det viktigaste. Följ mig.« Och det gör de. Men en av flickorna ska komma att förråda henne. Förord av Andres Lokko MURIEL SPARK [1918-2006] är en skotsk romanförfattare och poet vars produktiva författarskap tillhör de verkligt säregna och betydande från det brittiska 1900-talets andra hälft. Romanen Miss Jean Brodies bästa år [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1961] blev hennes stora genombrott och är fortfarande hennes mest lästa och omtyckta bok.

Muriel Spark (Author), Cecilia Walton Agrell (Narrator)

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Memento Mori

Remember you must die' says the telephone caller. This the voice, and message communicated in a series of anonymous calls made to many elderly people. Including; Dame Lettie, a blue-blooded reformer, Godfrey - her rather irritating brother, and his once fabulous novelist wife Charmian. But who is the caller? And why are they reminding them of this final truth? It's unsettling and mysterious. The activity increases and soon a witch-hunt is in full force, with nobody beyond suspicion. First published in 1959, Muriel Spark's startling and timeless novel is at once a crime story, a black comedy and an important meditation on mortality. The narration is by Eve Karpf.

Muriel Spark (Author), Eve Karpf (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Far Cry from Kensington

The narrator is one Mrs. Hawkins. She writes from Italy, a far cry from Kensington indeed, taking us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. As a young, rather fat war-widow she spent her days working for a crazy, almost bankrupt publisher; and her nights offering advice from her boarding-house in South Kensington. In both locations our heroine soon uncovered difficulties: shady literary dealings; anonymous letters, blackmail, and even suicide. Whilst Mrs. Hawkins innocently, confidently put about setting things right, she could little imagine the ensuing mayhem and consequences. Now many decades older, thinner, and pleased with her situation in Italy, Mrs. Hawkins reflects on all those dark happenings, recounting how her own life changed forever. Narrated by Juliet Stevenson, A Far Cry from Kensington shows Muriel Spark at the mature height of her powers. Rediscover this classic on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth.

Muriel Spark (Author), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Girls of Slender Means

The Girls of Slender Means is the third Muriel Spark audio release of 2012, following The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Complete Short Stories. It is 1945; a time of cultural and political change, and also one of slender means. Spark's evocative and sharply drawn novel focuses on a group of women living together in a hostel in Kensington who face new challenges in uncertain times. The novel is at once dramatic and character-based, and shows Muriel Spark at the height of her literary powers.

Muriel Spark (Author), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

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The Complete Short Stories

Muriel Spark (Author), Emilia Fox, Juliet Stevenson, Richard E. Grant (Narrator)

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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Famous novel made into a cult film, and one of only 25 books chosen for the first ever World BookNight in 2011. A liberated young schoolteacher at an Edinburgh girls' school during the 1930's instructs her girls on the ways of life. Ignoring the more mundane subjects, she teaches them of love, politics and art, with some shocking consequences.

Muriel Spark (Author), Miriam Margolyes (Narrator)

Audiobook

Reality and Dreams: A Novel

Award-winning British author Dame Muriel Spark is internationally renowned for her witty and engaging tales of life. Short and sophisticated, Reality and Dreams follows the career of self-centered, middle-aged film director Tom Richards. As he turns colorful incidents from his life into glittery, cinematic fiction, his foreboding dreams become all too real. Tom is passionately directing his latest film when he falls from a crane on the set. Awaking in a semi-conscious fog in a hospital room, he suddenly must deal with a comic, surreal procession of doctors, nurses, and out-of-work relatives. In a drugged daze, he dreams of ways to change his life. But some of his hazy visions come true as he recovers, causing Tom's real world to unravel into a distorted soap opera. Muriel Spark is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and winner of the prestigious David Cohen British Literature Prize. Her tantalizing story, Reality and Dreams, won the Arts Council Spring Book Award. With narrator Jenny Sterlin's expert pacing, all of the delicious surprises and the unsettling wisdom in this dark, contemporary comedy burst from the pages.

Muriel Spark (Author), Jenny Sterlin (Narrator)

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Cats

John Keats, Muriel Spark, P. G. Wodehouse, Patricia Highsmith, Various Authors (Author), Liza Goddard, Richard Griffiths (Narrator)

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A Far Cry from Kensington

Set on the crazier fringes of 1950s literary London, A Far Cry from Kensington is a delight, hilariously portraying love, fraud, death, evil, and transformation. Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry from Kensington, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher ('of very good books') and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide. With aplomb, however, Mrs. Hawkins confidently set about putting things to order, little imagining the mayhem that would ensue. Now decades older, thin, successful, and delighted with life in Italy'quite a far cry from Kensington'Mrs. Hawkins looks back to all those dark doings and recounts how her own life changed forever. She still, however, loves to give advice: 'It's easy to get thin. You eat and drink the same as always, only half'I offer this advice without fee; it is included in the price of this book.' A Far Cry from Kensington has been hailed as 'outstanding' (Observer), 'wickedly and adroitly executed' (New York Times), and 'a comedy that holds a tragedy as an eggcup holds an egg' (Philadelphia Inquirer). 'Wickedly and adroitly executed.''New York Times

Muriel Spark (Author), Pamela Garelick (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Driver's Seat

Lise is thin, neither good-looking nor bad-looking. One day she walks out of her office, acquires a gaudy new outfit, adopts a girlier tone of voice, and heads to the airport to fly south. On the plane she takes a seat between two men. One is delighted with her company, the other is deeply perturbed. So begins an unnerving journey into the darker recesses of human nature. Read by Dame Judi Dench, rediscover this shocking masterpiece in audiobook on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth.

Muriel Spark (Author), Judi Dench (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Ballad of Peckham Rye

The Ballad of Peckham Rye is the wickedly farcical fable of a blue-collar town turned upside down. When the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires Dougal Douglas (a.k.a. Douglas Dougal) to do "human research" into the private lives of its workforce, they are in no way prepared for the mayhem, mutiny, and murder he will stir up. In fact, this Music Man of the thoroughly modern corporation changes the lives of all the eccentric characters he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to V.R. Druce, unsuspecting Managing Director. This is Dame Muriel Spark at her most devilishly piquant. "We are never out of touch, in a Spark novel, with the happiness of creation; the sudden willful largesse of magic and wit, the cunning tautness of suspense."-John Updike, The New Yorker

Muriel Spark (Author), Nadia May (Narrator)

Audiobook