The first of two volumes of the letters of Muriel Spark, one of the greatest and most fascinating writers of the twentieth century. In 1944, on her return to England after a disastrous marriage, Muriel Spark was unknown as a writer except to a handful of close friends; by 1963 she was the internationally renowned author of seven critically acclaimed, bestselling novels. Her letters - witty, affectionate, sharp, mercurial - reveal the turbulence of her early career in postwar London: her struggles to earn a living as a writer, her difficult love affairs, a terrifying breakdown, and her conversion to Catholicism. They also trace her development from little-known poet to celebrated novelist, with glittering insights into the emergence of her unique literary voice, as well as her relationships with friends, lovers, writers and publishers. Selected from her extensive correspondence and insightfully edited and annotated, this is an essential read for anyone interested in Spark's work and world. '[An] immaculately-edited collection . . . Feisty, fun-filled, witty and, of course, sparky, the letters are a window into a remarkable life that was lived in devotion to literature' ALAN TAYLOR, author of Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark

ミュリエル・スパークの書簡集は、一人の詩人が小説家へと覚醒する魂の軌跡です。戦後ロンドンの困窮や信仰への傾倒を綴った文面からは、彼女特有の知性とウィットの源泉が鮮烈に立ち現れます。苦難を軽妙に昇華させる筆致は文学への献身そのもので、読者は言葉の端々に、本質を射抜く鋭利な眼差しを発見するでしょう。 映像化作品では彼女の生涯が劇的に描かれますが、本書は映像にない思考の呼吸を伝えます。活字の緊張感と映像の華やかさを照らし合わせることで、天才が築いた小宇宙の全貌がより立体的に浮かび上がるはずです。スパークの毒と愛が入り混じる肉声を辿る体験は、彼女の全小説を読み解くための最良の鍵となるに違いありません。