The Finishing School by Muriel Spark📖

Summary  of The Finishing School 

In Muriel Spark’s novella “The Finishing School”, Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina Parker, are running a private post-secondary school in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where they teach courses such as ‘creative writing’ and ‘étiquette’. In addition to his teaching and his efforts to keep creditors at bay, Rowland’s great ambition is to become a successful author. To his frustration, one of his students, Chris Wiley, appears to be more talented and more likely to achieve literary success.

Reasons to read The Finishing School

“The Finishing School” is a satirical novella about a teacher’s envy of his own student’s talents, set against the backdrop of a small private school on the banks of picturesque Lake Geneva. Muriel Spark was a celebrated Scottish writer, best known for books such as “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, “The Mandelbaum Gate”, “A Far Cry From Kensington“, and “The Driver’s Seat”. “The Finishing School” was her final novel.

Setting: Ouchy, Lake Geneva (Switzerland)

Original title: The Finishing School

Year of publication: 2004

Nr of pages: 181