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Muriel Spark
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The Driver's Seat Paperback – 31 May 2006

by Muriel Spark (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 399 ratings
Edition: 1st
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New to Modern Classics, published alongside The Ballad of Peckham Rye

Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime. But her search for adventure, sex and the obsessional experience takes on a far darker significance as she heads on a journey of self-destruction. Infinity and eternity attend Lise's last terrible day in an unnamed southern city, as she meets her fate.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0141188340
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0141188348
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Penguin
  5. Publication date
    31 May 2006
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    19.8 x 0.7 x 12.9 cm
  8. Print length
    128 pages
  9. See all details
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Review

The Driver's Seat is a scalpel, cutting away the excess of the traditional novel and leaving only the core. It is a stiletto, piercing straight to the heart - or thereabouts -- John Self

About the Author

Muriel Spark (born February 1, 1918) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She began writing seriously after the war, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947, she became editor of the Poetry Review. Her first novel The Comforters was published in 1957, but it was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962) which established her reputation. After living in New York for some years, she settled in Italy in the late 1960s. She became Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993.


John Lanchester was born in Hamburg in 1962. His first novel, THE DEBT TO PLEASURE, published by Picador in 1996, won the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Betty Trask Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. His second novel, MR PHILLIPS (Faber), was published in 2000 and was hailed as a "postmodern Ulysses". FRAGRANT HARBOUR, his third novel, was published by Faber in 2002. His work has been translated into 21 languages.
John Lanchester has recently delivered a memoir, FAMILY ROMANCE, which will be published by Faber in the spring of 2007.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; 1st edition (31 May 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141188340
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141188348
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.8 x 0.7 x 12.9 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 399 ratings

About the author

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Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark

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Muriel Spark (1918–2006) was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film. Spark became a Dame of the British Empire in 1993.

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3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
399 global ratings

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Top review from Australia

Simpson from Oz
1.0 out of 5 stars Not her best by a long shot
Reviewed in Australia on 12 November 2020
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Has not held up well over time.
One person found this helpful
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Otto
4.0 out of 5 stars Breve ma intenso!
Reviewed in Italy on 9 December 2021
Verified Purchase
Il libro è arrivato un po' ammaccato. Si tratta di un thriller al contrario: seguiamo una donna che sappiamo che verrà uccisa il giorno dopo che la storia ha luogo e, camminando con lei lungo il percorso che la condurrà alla morte, dobbiamo cercare di capire chi è il suo assassino e perché l'ha uccisa. Il finale vi sconvolgerà! In un'unione di generi, dal thriller al post-modernismo, questo romanzo cerca di decostruire il rapporto tra autore e opera narrativa, mentre Lise, la protagonista, cerca di determinare il suo destino in un mondo predeterminato. Una lettura davvero interessante! Consigliato!
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Otto
4.0 out of 5 stars Breve ma intenso!
Reviewed in Italy on 9 December 2021
Il libro è arrivato un po' ammaccato. Si tratta di un thriller al contrario: seguiamo una donna che sappiamo che verrà uccisa il giorno dopo che la storia ha luogo e, camminando con lei lungo il percorso che la condurrà alla morte, dobbiamo cercare di capire chi è il suo assassino e perché l'ha uccisa. Il finale vi sconvolgerà! In un'unione di generi, dal thriller al post-modernismo, questo romanzo cerca di decostruire il rapporto tra autore e opera narrativa, mentre Lise, la protagonista, cerca di determinare il suo destino in un mondo predeterminato. Una lettura davvero interessante! Consigliato!
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Tyrone Marsh
5.0 out of 5 stars Stranger Danger!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2020
Verified Purchase
Muriel Spark’s ‘The Driver’s Seat’ is an exceptional piece of literature. I read it in a day.

From the very start of the novel I was kept on edge, eager to comprehend as to why Lise disliked stainless dresses. Such emphasis on the mundane, a dress that distinct in colour, drives us to think about the mundane in reality. However, Spark draws us into Lise’s reality; and that is the metaphysical aspect of the novel. We do not see her death coming, but we do. Spark informs us of her narrative death, fragmenting the text and the text’s temporality. In doing so, I believe she is commenting on the illusionary power of the mundane. What is the significance of a distinctly colorful dress? What is the significance of a paper-knife? Why and how did Lise convince a man, previously convicted of murder, to kill her? The answer is made clear throughout. Lise wanted her dress to stain. She wanted to make her death known; planting evidence herself, with us, as readers, not even aware due to Spark’s smart use of language - we are not only manipulated by the protagonist, but also, in turn, by the author itself.

We become part of The Driver’s Seat, falling victim to Lise’s illusory reality. We become part of the text; aware yet unaware, suspicious yet not suspicious. Perhaps Spark is doing this to critique how one can become manipulated by reality, by strangers. The novel basically becomes an adult way of saying ‘Stranger Danger’, as the stranger in the text, (paradoxically the protagonist Lise who is not a stranger to us), ends up becoming psychotic. Did we expect it? Yes and no (you have to read the text to understand how it can be both yes and no... trust me)!

Highly recommend this text. Got me thinking...
6 people found this helpful
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Michelline Palmeira
5.0 out of 5 stars Leitura gostosa e rápida
Reviewed in Brazil on 24 October 2018
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História super bem escrita e rápida de ler (acredito que escoceses já nascem contadores de histórias).
One person found this helpful
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Carmen
5.0 out of 5 stars Eveything OK
Reviewed in Spain on 18 October 2015
Verified Purchase
Perfect transaction... book in very good condtions... no damage... recommended seller

received in stimated time... eveything ok

I don't know what else to say, I need to complete this section to give my opinion about the purchase :)
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dr. mayank kumar singh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on 5 May 2015
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it is a classic in kafquesian style which keeps you on tenterhooks till the end
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