Symposium (novel)
 First edition | |
| Author | Muriel Spark |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Susan Sluglett |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Constable (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US) |
Publication date | 1990 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print & Audio |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 0-09-469660-8 |
Symposium is a novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark, published in 1990. It was regarded by John Mortimer writing in The Sunday Times as one of the best novels of that year.[1]
Plot introduction
It is the story of a dinner party and the events leading up to it involving the lives of the five couples attending:
- Hurley Reed (an American painter) and Chris Donovan (a rich Australian widow), the party hosts
- Lord and Lady Suzy, who have recently been burgled
- Ernst and Ella Untzinger, an EU commissioner and his wife, a teacher
- Margaret and William Damien, newlyweds just returned from a honeymoon in Venice
- Annabel Treece and Roland Sykes, a TV producer and genealogist, cousins
The story includes many flashbacks into the lives of the guests including a convent of Marxist nuns, a burglary ring preying on the guests, a mad Scottish uncle and several unexplained deaths. The dinner party itself ends with the murder of the mother of one of the guests.
Reception
- Symposium was applauded by Time Magazine for the "sinister elegance" of Muriel Spark's "medium of light but lethal comedy."[2]
- 'Symposium is put together like an intricate jigsaw...It is extremely clever and highly entertaining' - Penelope Lively[3]
- 'Stiletto-sharp fiction...it is the dialogue that propels this dangerous, devilish book' - Scotland on Sunday[4]
References
- ^ rear flyleaf of Reality and Dreams by Muriel Spark, 1st edition publ. 1996 by Constable ISBN 0-09-469670-5
- ^ "Flipkart.com: Symposium: Muriel Spark: Books Buy Muriel Spark Symposium in India". Archived from the original on 4 December 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
- ^ Spark, Muriel (2006). Symposium. ISBN 978-1844082476.
- ^ "Symposium by Muriel Spark, Ian Rankin | Waterstones".