{"product_id":"electric-spark-the-enigma-of-dame-muriel-frances-wilson-hardcover","title":"Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel -- Frances Wilson, Hardcover","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist for the PEN\/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003eShort-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe award-winning biographer Frances Wilson presents an exhilarating new look at Muriel Spark, a consummate artist of the twentieth century.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Is the story fact? Is it fiction? It is what it is,\" said Muriel Spark. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMuriel Spark was a puzzle, and so too are her books. She dealt in word games, tricks, and ciphers; her life was composed of weird accidents, strange coincidences, and spooky events. Evelyn Waugh thought she was a saint, Bernard Levin said she was a witch, and she described herself as \"Muriel the Marvel with her X-ray eyes.\" By following the clues, riddles, and instructions Spark planted for posterity in her biographies, fiction, autobiography, and archives, Frances Wilson aims to crack her code. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eElectric Spark\u003c\/i\u003e explores not the celebrated Dame Muriel but the apprentice mage discovering her powers. It takes us through her early years, when turmoil reigned: divorce, madness, murder, espionage, poverty, skullduggery, blackmail, love affairs, revenge, and a major religious conversion. If this sounds like a novel by Spark, it is because her experiences in the 1940s and 1950s became, alchemically distilled, the material of her art. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"As good a critic as she is a biographer [and] as sharp a stylist as she is a reader\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e), in \u003ci\u003eElectric Spark\u003c\/i\u003e Frances Wilson brings her enormous, incandescent powers to bear on one of the most formidable writers of the twentieth century.\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Frances Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9\/23\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 432\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.4 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9.19\" H x 6.35\" L x 1.35\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780374613204\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Flowerburst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50551614865712,"sku":"9780374613204","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2712\/8368\/files\/9780374613204_33188ae5-b5d6-46a0-aaab-7842321558bf.jpg?v=1774406425","url":"https:\/\/flowerburst.co\/products\/electric-spark-the-enigma-of-dame-muriel-frances-wilson-hardcover","provider":"Flowerburst","version":"1.0","type":"link"}