{"id":119,"date":"2017-04-17T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/not-to-disturb-by-muriel-spark-uk-1971\/"},"modified":"2019-12-31T08:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T21:15:41","slug":"not-to-disturb-by-muriel-spark-uk-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diane.eklund.abolins.net\/blog\/not-to-disturb-by-muriel-spark-uk-1971\/","title":{"rendered":"Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark, UK, 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Witty and intelligently written, this novella is set in a upper-class home outside Geneva<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>on a particularly stormy and inclement night. The Baron and the Baroness have withdrawn to the library with their secretary and have impressed upon the staff that they are not to be disturbed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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With the three central characters off-stage in the library, the butler, Lister, orchestrates the entire evening as though it is a play; reality and the absurd are expertly woven together; and it is difficult to know where the one begins and the other ends. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i>The butler<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> and the other members of the staff prepare for a three-way tragedy, although why or how this should be happening remains a partial mystery. With great flair, Lister organizes everything for the expected onslaught by police, the media and outsiders at daybreak; he has even given taken care of things like the Baron\u2019s mad brother cloistered in the attic and the inheritance of the estate. Everyone practises the lines he or she will later repeat for the police and others, and, like the director of a play, Lister adds a word here, removes a sentence there, makes suggestions…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Not to Disturb<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i> needs to be read several times in order to appreciate the satire and the very clever twists and turns of language. The ending leaves the reader with many questions: how much did the staff actually know in advance? Were they complicit in the tragedy? What happened afterwards? . . . Perhaps one of the strengths of the novella is that there are no definite answers to these many questions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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The photo of Muriel Spark in 1960 is from <\/span>Wikipedia<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Witty and intelligently written, this novella is set in a upper-class home outside Genevaon a particularly stormy and inclement night. The Baron and the Baroness have withdrawn to the library with their secretary and have impressed upon the staff that they are not to be disturbed. With the three central characters off-stage in the … <\/p>\n

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