The Finishing School

by Muriel Spark

Book Overview

From Muriel Spark, the grande dame of literary satire, comes this swift, deliciously witty tale of writerly ambition that recalls her beloved The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. College Sunrise is a somewhat louche and vaguely disreputable finishing school located, for now, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, run the school as a way to support themselves while he works, somewhat falteringly, on his novel. Into Rowland's creative...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400077397
• ISBN13: 9781400077397
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Your tax dollars at work

The US government has done a lot of the reviewing work on this for me. The Library of Congress catalog entry (who does these?) reads as follows: 1. Creative writing -study and teaching - Fiction. 2. Teacher-student relationships - fiction. 3. Lausanne (Switzerland) - fiction. 4. Fiction-authorship -Fiction. 5. Married people- fiction. 6. Teenage boys - Fiction That does describe a lot of it. All that's left for me is to put in a bunch of superlatives and give it five stars. An amazing thing that should be irrelevant is the author's date of birth (1923). I was reading the latest Muriel Sparks with enjoyment as a teenager. I didn't think I'd still be doing it in 2005. This is sparkling (sorry) up-to-the minute satire with never a cliché or a wasted word.

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.

Slim of plot, but acute in its scrutiny of artistic jealousy

"The Finishing School" is a thread-bare novella--a sketch, really--about jealousy and the creative process. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, operate College Sunrise, a post-secondary school which moves from one European location to another, not merely for a change in ambience but mostly to outrun the school's piling debts. While Nina manages the school, Rowland is supposed to be writing his novel, but he's suffering from an intractable case of writer's block. To put it more accurately: "Rowland was simply going mad with jealousy about the writing of novels." One of the school's students, the handsome and popular Chris Wiley, is discovered writing his own book--a historical work about Mary, Queen of Scots. Soon enough, Chris's novel has attracted both the attention of several publishers and the murderous envy of Rowland, who whines that Chris is "trying to pass himself off as a creative writer, when all he's doing is exploiting his looks and his youth." And Chris, in turn, discovers that he is unable work on his book without the motivating presence of Rowland's jealousy. Added to this plot are a few random descriptions of the other students (and their familial backgrounds) and some generally blithe comments about society ("it's hypocrisy that makes the world go round"), etiquette ("if you are offered a plover's egg as a snack...you want your right hand to be free to shake someone else's hand [so] your left hand should hold the plover's egg"), and liberalism in education (Nina obliges when the students want "to be reminded of what an exam was like"). The slightness of Spark's 23nd novel is more than compensated by the sharpness of its observations on creativity and competitiveness. Like other British comedies of manners, "The Finishing School" is slim of plot and of character; instead, it's a work to be savored for its conciseness, its cynicism, and its occasional mean-spiritedness.

Crisp, fresh, and witty

It never fails to surprise me when I can enjoy a book but not its characters, and it always speaks to me of great writing. I absolutely HATE Alice Mellings of Doris Lessing's THE GOOD TERRORIST, but I have read my copy to literal pieces. However, I also couldn't stand Dolores Price in Wally Lamb's SHE'S COME UNDONE and have never thought once about reading it again. Now, into the first category, enter Rowland and Nina Mahler, the protagonists of THE FINISHING SCHOOL by Muriel Spark. Rowland and Nina, a married couple in their late twenties, have hit on a great scheme, although it is never referred to as such. They run a tiny, barely legitimate "finishing" school for a handful of world weary, not college material, rich kids who really seem to be just marking time before they marry off (girls), get hired as a charity case by the family business (boys), or come into their trusts (both). Despite a popular creative writing class taught by Rowland, himself a struggling novelist, their only real draw is the fact that the school --- College Sunrise --- is a mobile one and thus changes its Western Europe location every year. The year that we are permitted to observe, the College can be found in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland enjoys his role of professorial writer while Nina runs both the school and various off the cuff lectures regarding lesser known facts of international etiquette (such as if you are ever offered a plover's egg as part of a cocktail canape, be sure to eat it with your left hand), which could only be relevant for this motley crew of international "students." Nina also realizes that her marriage with Rowland is quickly coming to an end, but she accepts this and has even begun planning her next life phase. Their assortment of students include Princess Tilly, of what she is actually Princess of no one knows; Opal, whose family is going through bankruptcy; Pallas Kapelas of Greece, whose father is most likely a spy; and then there is Chris Wiley, who for some reason thought the College would be the perfect place to write his Novel. His Novel is always discussed as if capitalized and, after reading the first few chapters, Rowland is surprised by how good it really is. Of course, due to his own writing ambitions (which are sent into a complete tailspin by the proximity of Great Young Writer Chris), he does everything within his power to play down his opinion of the fledgling book and, by the end of this short tome, has moved from subtle editorial criticism of the Novel to out and out sabotage of Chris's contacts with publishers. Chris is completely aware of Rowland's maneuvers, as he is of the maddening jealousy Rowland feels towards him. He purposely flaunts his Novel in Rowland's nose every chance he gets. It is surprising that he leaves the school intact, especially considering the murderous fantasies his "mentor" is having by that time. It is even surprising to find out where he is two years later in the epilogue disguised as the final

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