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Chargement... Girls of Slender Means the (1963)
Information sur l'oeuvreLes célibataires par Muriel Spark (1963)
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. This is mainly set between VE & VJ day in London. Set in the May of Teck club, the house is an organisation that offers rooms and society to girls who have moved to London for work. We meet a number of the girls, mostly those living on the top floor. They all come vividly to life (as does the Schiaparelli dress, which leads a life more exciting than the girls!). Into this comes Nicholas Farringdon. We hear about him as he aims to get a book published in the timeframe and also as he's been martyred in a future timeframe. I wondered how this was going to end, and it does with a bang. It also is potentially the cause of the events we hear about in the future. It is a fascinating slice of life at a very different time, and feels like a period piece. I wonder if it did at the time, being written almost 20 years after the period the bulk of the book is set. Ambientada en las ruinas de Londres durante la difícil primavera y el verano indigente de 1945, recién acabada la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Las señoritas de escasos medios (1963), considerada una de las mejores novelas de Muriel Spark, se ocupa del mundo deliciosamente despreocupado de unas chicas que viven en un club residencial para mujeres solteras, y que van pasando por varios estados de ligue. En un contexto cerrado, que proporciona el cristal a través del cual contemplar el panorama histórico de un austero Londres que resurge de sus cenizas, seductora y de una comicidad deslenguada, Las señoritas de escasos medios es una divertidísima novela de costumbres y un despiadado análisis de afectos y filiaciones, que pertenece a la gran tradición de la novela inglesa de posguerra, de la que es un referente ineludible. This short novel presents us with a slice of life in bombed out London shortly after the end of World War II for a group of young women living at the May of Teck Club, a sort of boarding home for "Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their families in order to follow an Occupation in London." We follow the lives of Jane Wright, who is fat, but does "brainwork," Anne Baberton, owner of the Schiaparelli gown shared among the girls, Joanna Childe, teacher of elocution, Selena Redwood, "the only woman present who could afford to loll, the three spinsters, Collie, Greggie, and Jarvis's, and several others. There is a "before and after" in this book, and the story alternates between the two. Spark's writing is witty and precise--the bombed out houses were like "giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity," and the book conveys a great sense of time and place. I liked this book very much. 4 stars First line: "Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions." Last line: "Nicholas marveled at her stamina, recalling her in this image years later in the country of his death--how she stood, sturdy and bare-legged on the dark grass, occupied with her hair--as if this was an image of all the May of Teck establishment in its meek, unselfconscious attitudes of poverty, long ago in 1945. Earlier this year I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and fell in love with Muriel Spark's writing. So, when I had the chance to read this one, The Girls of Slender Means, I jumped at it. The characters and writing were all I had hoped for. However, to be honest I still prefer The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and if you're only going to read one book by this author, I'd recommend that one. Recommend for fans of the author or classics in general. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Est contenu dansThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie / The Girls of Slender Means / The Driver's Seat / The Only Problem par Muriel Spark Muriel Spark Omnibus 1 & 2 par Muriel Spark (indirect) Est en version abrégée dansListes notables
Un classique de la litt©♭rature ©♭cossaise du XXe si©·cle indisponible depuis des d©♭cennies © red©♭couvrir. Une guerre vient de s'achever, un monde a disparu. Nous sommes © Londres, en 1945, ©♭poque o©£, © quelques exceptions pr©·s, tous les gens bien sont pauvres... C'est le cas, entre autres, des h©♭ro© nes du roman de Muriel Spark, jeunes pensionnaires du club May de Teck, une fondation royale accueillant des " demoiselles aux moyens modestes ". Toutes font des prodiges pour joindre les deux bouts en ces temps de disette ; toutes - ou presque - s'int©♭ressent aux hommes. Leur quotidien somme toute assez insouciant semble pouvoir se prolonger ind©♭finiment, mais, comme la guerre et le monde d'avant, il va brusquement prendre fin - sur une trag©♭die. Paru en 1963, ce roman de Muriel Spark, l'une des plus grandes ©♭crivaines ©♭cossaises du XXe si©·cle, est un petit bijou de causticit©♭, dans la m©®me veine que Les Belles Ann©♭es de Mademoiselle Brodie. " Dans la vie, Muriel Spark ©♭tait un peu devin, un peu m©♭dium, un peu sorci©·re... et bien s© r elle l'©♭tait plus encore en tant qu'auteur. Au fil d'une conversation, on l'entendait r©♭pondre © ce qui n'©♭tait pas encore dit, © ce qu'© part soi l'on pensait, © ce que l'on aurait souhait©♭ garder cach©♭. " Chirstine Jordis Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Poetry is the theme that links the various elements of the plot.
"Joanne Childe had been drawn to this profession by her good voice and love of poetry which she loved rather as it might be assumed a cat loves birds; poetry, especially the declamatory sort, excited and possessed her; she would pounce on the stuff, play with it quivering in her mind, and when she had got it by the heart, she spoke it forth with devouring relish."
As Violet Wells review points out, the roof of the charity home, the May of Teck Club (itself a character in the story), is a mysterious world of adventure and sanctuary, but can only be accessed from the top floor girls bathroom, and only by women who are extremely slender, naked, and smeared with precious lubricant, and an interesting view of worlds beyond the club. Set between the German and Japanese WW2 surrenders in a bombed out but surprising cheerful London of ration books and deprivations, where the search for love overcomes all such shortcomings and the cast of oddballs runs around having for the most part a jolly fine time. ( )