Muriel Spark: Biography and “You Should Have Seen the Mess”
Muriel Spark (1918-2006)
Muriel Sarah Camberg (known as Muriel Spark) was born in Edinburgh on February 1, 1918, and died in Florence on April 13, 2006. Educated in Edinburgh, she became editor of Poetry Review and later published a series of biographies of figures like Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë. She is best known for her novels, notably Memento Mori and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
She attended James Gillespie’s High School for Girls, where she met Christina Kay, who became the inspiration for one of Spark’s most famous characters.
She married Sidney Oswald ‘Ossie’ Spark, and they had a son, Robin. However, her husband later abandoned them in Africa. When she returned home, she became involved in London’s literary world. Her first novel, The Comforters (1957), earned critical acclaim from established British writers such as Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.
By the end of the 1960s, Spark moved to Italy, where she met Penelope Jardine. Some people speculated that their relationship was a romantic one.
In 2004, Spark published The Finishing School, which proved to be her final novel.
Summary of “You Should Have Seen the Mess”
This story, written by Muriel Spark, tells us about a seventeen-year-old girl, Lorna, who has an extreme obsession with cleanliness and tidiness because of the way she was brought up by her parents. Because she is so obsessed, she criticizes every spotless building. It is for that reason that she has changed schools and jobs several times. As a consequence of her obsession, she also has problems going out with boys. Although for Lorna cleanliness is the most important thing in the world, other people don’t always see things the way she does, and thus, she sometimes seems impolite or ridiculous.
Key Points
- Author (Muriel Spark) is not the Narrator (Lorna). Lorna is the protagonist.
- Narrative Voice: First person. It isn’t autobiographical because nobody would write about their obsessions, as they don’t consider themselves a ‘maniac’ person.
- Time:
- Time of the history: When Lorna was 17 years old.
- Time of the story: Between Lorna’s 12-17 years old.
- Theme: Lorna’s madness, inflexibility (Lorna is frozen), the influence of Lorna’s home on her behavior.
Story Excerpts and Phrases:
- + More hygienic
- —because of what it does to one’s habits.
- + My first job.
- + good carpet. Very clean.
- + You should have seen the mess.
- + Far from hygienic.
- + I told Mum, and she was upset.
- + Do you watch Telly? I did take this as an insult.
- + He looked surprised.
- + Everyone admires our flat… you will find every corner spick and span.
- + and you should have seen the state it was in.
- —To cut a long story short, Mr. Darby and Mrs. Darby have always been very kind to me.
- +/— I liked them, but I did not like the mess, and it was a surprise.
- —So I did not say anything about the cracked lino and the paintwork all chipped.
- + I did not know which way to look.
- + He was quite clean in appearance
- + I could wait for a man in a better position.
- + They had interesting conversation, although sometimes it gave me a surprise, and I did not know where to look.
- + but I didn’t mention it.
- + I don’t know what to do.
- + I could well believe it. It was very cracked and old.
- + I did not know where to look.
- + There was a carpet hanging on the wall… the furniture was far from new.
- + very clean block.
- + one could not see right away if he was clean.
- + Mum said it was all right.
- + Willy’s place was the most unhygienic place I have seen in my life.
- + I could see the bed had not been made, and the sheets were far from clean.
- + I was always unhygienic when I went to Willy’s place.
- + but dirty inside.
- + in a terrible mess.
- + So it came to me, all of a sudden, what a fool I was going with Willy… I think it would break my heart to sink so low.