Product Description

Passionately determined to write his novel whilst running College Sunrise, a finishing school for both sexes and mixed nationalities, Rowland Mahler is assisted by his wife, Nina Parker. This term there is a new star pupil - Chris, seventeen, also determined to write his masterpiece. As Chris's novel takes shape while his own flounders, Rowland becomes increasingly obsessed and The Finishing School becomes awash with his jealousy and envy. This new novel amply displays Muriel Spark's extraordinary talent: her cool, biting humour and unique vision of human nature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147571 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The elegantly written The Finishing School reminds us again of Muriel Spark's unique talent, combining a wry sympathy for human behaviour with a clear-eyed assessment of our foibles. All her books, from the The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to the lesser known volumes, possess an insinuating charm and an understated but often lethal satirical thrust; few middle-class absurdities have gone unanalysed.

The Finishing School is concise but it has all the insinuating charm of her best work. Rowland Mahler and his wife Nina run a mixed-sex finishing school called College Sunrise. Rowland has aspirations as a novelist but he has an unconscious rival--a talented pupil, Chris--whose literary efforts effortlessly outpace Rowland's. Soon a poisonous atmosphere suffuses the school as Rowland falls prey to agonies of jealousy. Spark has always been good at the tensions and rivalries of the school environment, and her touch is as sure as ever in this highly diverting piece. --Barry Forshaw

About the Author
Muriel Spark's many novels include Memento Mori, The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry From Kensington, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (adapted for film and theatre), Aiding And Abetting and her final novel, The Finishing School. She was elected C. Litt in 1992 and awarded the DBE in 1993. Dame Muriel received many awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the FNAC Prix Etranger, the Saltire Prize, the Ingersoll T. S. Eliot Award and the David Cohen British Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. Dame Muriel died in 2006.

Customer Reviews

Jealousy, love and obsession
This is a story about Chris, a young soon-to-be published author and his envious teacher, Rowland Mahler. Rowland runs the school that Chris attends and he becomes obsessed with his pupil's success whilst he struggles at getting published himself. Spark writes with a dry wit and the opening page had me spluttering with laughter. This story of jealousy, love and obsession is a confusing but intriguing tale.

You Must Just Write, When You Set The Scene
"You begin" he said "by setting your scene. You have to see your scene, either in reality or in imagination" thus begins the setting of "The Finishing School". Muriel Spark has set in motion another one of her indelibly fascinating novels.

Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina run the College Sunrise. The school moves from country to country each year. It is easier that way when finances get tough. They have ten students, nine attend school. The setting this year is Lausanne. The students are well placed and receive a good enough education.

One of the students, Chris Wiley is a literary prodigy who has a novel in progress that has interested the publishers. Of note, Rowland is also a novelist whose intent is to write the novel of the century. At once, Rowland is jealous of his student, Chris. He derives every act he can think of to find the novel, but he fails. The entire school knows what he is after, but no one really cares. Most of the novel revolves around the writing of the novel and who will be the winner.

Into this mixture come sexual intrigue, men and women and men and men. What is it that makes men and women like this game of cat and mouse? Why are we so good at hiding our actual feelings and other people are so good at figuring out what they are?
Who are the hypocrites, and why are we so delusional?

Muriel Spark has written over twenty novels. I have read most of them. This is not her best novel and iat is quite short. Muriel Spark is considered a master of our time. She can capture our hysteria and paranoia in such subtle language. This is a book to be read and savored. Highly recommended. prisrob

An original and entertaining novella
Rowland Mahler and his wife Nina founded the College Sunrise in Ouchy, Switzerland. They are respectively 29 and 26 and they have nine students. Rowland teaches creative writing and in his spare time he aspires to become a novelist. But then his seventeen year old student Chris Wiley starts writing a novel about Mary Queen of Scots entitled "Who Killed Darnley" and Rowland suffers from writing block because he is jealous of the ease with which Chris's writing progresses. Rowland can't understand why his teenage pupil is able to write like a professional, how he can manage language so wonderfully and with so little experience. Nothing compared with his own dismal efforts at mediocre prose.
But as the reader progresses along the plot, he realises that nothing in Mrs Spark's novel is as it seems. The characters are well drawn, the scenes are often very amusing because they are laced with acute and witty observations about authors, publishers, school life, marital relationships and more generally about present day preoccupations.