{"product_id":"electric-spark-the-enigma-of-dame-muriel","title":"Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel","description":"\u003cp\u003eLong-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe award-winning biographer Frances Wilson presents an exhilarating new look at Muriel Spark, a consummate artist of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Is the story fact? Is it fiction? It is what it is,” said Muriel Spark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElectric Spark 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“As good a critic as she is a biographer [and] as sharp a stylist as she is a reader” (The Boston Globe), in Electric Spark Frances Wilson brings her enormous, incandescent powers to bear on one of the most formidable writers of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"mb-1 mt-2 whitespace-pre-line leading-relaxed first:mt-0\" data-sentry-component=\"P\" data-sentry-source-file=\"p.tsx\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDETAILS:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAuthor: Frances Wilson\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublication date: September 23, 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFormat: Hardcover\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eISBN\/EAN: 0374613206 \/ 9780374613204\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShips direct from distributor in 3 to 7 business days\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Cedar Leaf Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45196626329644,"sku":"9780374613204","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0697\/2234\/1420\/files\/9780374613204.jpg?v=1768257477","url":"https:\/\/cedarleafbooks.com\/products\/electric-spark-the-enigma-of-dame-muriel","provider":"Cedar Leaf Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}