This short novel presents us with a slice of life in bombed out London shortly after the end of World War II for a group of young women living at the May of Teck Club, a sort of boarding home for "Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their families in order to follow an Occupation in London." We follow the lives of Jane Wright, who is fat, but does "brainwork," Anne Baberton, owner of the Schiaparelli gown shared among the girls, Joanna Childe, teacher of elocution, Selena Redwood, "the only woman present who could afford to loll, the three spinsters, Collie, Greggie, and Jarvis's, and several others. There is a "before and after" in this book, and the story alternates between the two. Spark's writing is witty and precise--the bombed out houses were like "giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity," and the book conveys a great sense of time and place. I liked this book very much.

4 stars

First line: "Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."
Last line: "Nicholas marveled at her stamina, recalling her in this image years later in the country of his death--how she stood, sturdy and bare-legged on the dark grass, occupied with her hair--as if this was an image of all the May of Teck establishment in its meek, unselfconscious attitudes of poverty, long ago in 1945. ( )

Earlier this year I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and fell in love with Muriel Spark's writing. So, when I had the chance to read this one, The Girls of Slender Means, I jumped at it. The characters and writing were all I had hoped for. However, to be honest I still prefer The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and if you're only going to read one book by this author, I'd recommend that one.

Recommend for fans of the author or classics in general. ( )

Book club read. On first read disappointed. On second reading (and in daytime when less tired) I got more from it. Well crafted. ( )

In 1945, between the VE day and VJ day celebrations, the girls of slender means who reside at the May of Teck Club in London, opposite the Albert Memorial, generally had one of two things on their minds: boys, for pleasure or as prospective husbands, and food, for brain work. And throughout such pursuits there was the ever-present need of an equanimity of body and mind, as poise is perfect balance. Into their lives stumbles Nicholas Farringdon, who, years later would lose his life in Haiti, a martyr to his own obnoxious interference in local practices, though at this point in time he thought himself an anarchist who nevertheless had a high regard for the royal family. His tragic end, which might actually have been comic, was preceded way back in 1945 by a more tragic ending, a loss of both innocence and fine elocution.

Muriel Spark is in high comic form here, both bitingly acerbic and bawdily frank. But it is the flittering anxiety of purpose, whether spiritual or profane, that permeates this club of genteel poverty which holds our interest. As Spark moves amongst the many inhabitants, of whom we rarely gain more than a sketch, she reveals both their weaknesses and their strength. None more so than Jane, who is not slender herself, but who observes all her slender peers and busies herself with brain work in the world of books. The result is a delightful comic presentation of a world which, most probably, was already a distant memory when Spark chose to capture it.

Recommended. ( )

A story of a group of girls that inhabit a London boardinghouse established for the benefit of poor young women in the economically precarious, slightly surreal days that followed the end of the Second World War. Spark sets forth the details of their romantic entanglements, their financial position, and their outlook on the future with remarkable economy, making the Princess of Tek seem a bit like a female, twentieth century version of the Pequod. Her prose here is also just terrific: sharp, acid, and so unerringly straight -- if just on the surface -- that it qulifies as genuinely ironic throughout. Her descriptions of bombed-out postwar London are similarly observant, as are her observations of the girls' values, which are rapidly losing the color of youth and growing into cutthroat middle-class conservatism. Sharp forms a lot of these characters with remarkable care, but she isn't too gentle with any of them.

The problem I had with "The Girls of Slender Means" is that Nicholas Farringdon, the book's male counterpoint, isn't really a strong enough -- or defined enough -- character to hold the book together. After his death, there's a bit of a reveal, similar to the magnificent denouement at the end of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." But unless I'm missing something -- and I may be -- it's well-done but not quite enough. It is, admittedly, wonderful to see how Spark can tell you exactly the way her characters end up without coming close to losing your interest, which might be the mark of a really great writer. This one left me wanting a bit more, but it's still highly recommended to the author's fans, and to fans of sharp, satirical writing in general. ( )

A British WWII drama/dark comedy—equal parts of both—about a young women's residence and the young women who live there, with jumps in time and slow reveals of several things, notably a sad ending for several of the characters and Spark's trademark gradual unpeeling of character. The form of this short book is tricky and quite wonderful—I've been thinking about how she pulled it off since I finished. Very good stuff, and definitely worthy of a reread at some point, once it's had the chance to settle. ( )

The Girls Of Slender Means A very dated story but still readable.
 
Set in the 1940s in London. It floats around the news that one of the characters, who had become a missionary, has been killed in some dark and foreign land. The bulk of the novel and characters are set in a women's club and it follows the comings and goings of these people. Full of postwar morality and class. It doesn't really go anywhere it is more of a sit-com that is not funny, a kind of memoir / sit-drama. ( )

"I’ve got something to tell you. Do you remember Nicholas Farringdon? Remember he used to come to the old May of Teck just after the war, he was an anarchist and poet sort of thing. A tall man with—’
‘The one that got on to the roof to sleep out with Selina?’
‘Yes, Nicholas Farringdon.’
‘Oh rather. Has he turned up?’
‘No, he’s been martyred.’
‘What-ed?’
‘Martyred in Haiti. Killed. Remember he became a Brother—’
‘But I’ve just been to Tahiti, it’s marvellous, everyone’s marvellous. Where did you hear it?’
‘Haiti. There’s a news paragraph just come over Reuters..." ( )

This is a story of young women living in a board and lodge for young women under 30. The time period is the end the war (1945) but also 1960. One of the women, Jane, who works in the publishing industry hears of the death of Nicholas in Haiti. This news result in a series of flashbacks back to the time when Jane lived in the May Teck Club. In these few pages, the author explores young women who are of "slender means" and also unaware life with its dangers that they face. The book explores such themes as death, religion, faith, set in a very light and humorous tone. Joanne, who is constantly reciting poetry and liturgy with eloquence as she teaches elocution, but when you pay attention to the words and subjects, you find a constant thread of "death". There is foreshadowing of an approaching disaster that is there through out the humor. This is my second book by Muriel Sparks. While I can say, I liked this book, I think The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is much better.

The title is very interesting play on words as you will find if you read this book. ( )

Muriel Spark packs a lot in to her short novels. I'm amazed at how many characters are developed over the 140 pages of this novel. The setting is a home for "girls of slender means", i.e. poor, where many young (and a few old) women live - sharing and bartering soap, food, and even clothes. In the opening of the book, we find out that an acquaintance of the house, Nicholas Farringdon, has been killed while living in Haiti. This leads to a series of flashbacks that make up most of the book, taking place in 1945. A tragedy is slowly revealed, and the book ends up sadly for several of the characters.

Spark writes women's relationships with a lot of depth, insight, and a brutal honesty about how women can be both the biggest support and the harshest critics of each other. I really love her writing. ( )

Although this story is more of a novella, it quickly captures the lives and personalities of some of the inhabitants of the May Teck club. Set in London after WW II, the May Teck club is a boarding house for single respectable women who don't come from wealthy families and have to work, or 'girls of slender means'. The girls spend their time doing things like teaching elocution, going to parties with eligible single men and trying to live gay lives in London, when tragedy hits the May Teck club.

This story isn't a page turner or a tear jerker, but more of a well-crafted quiet story. ( )

This is the only novel of hers I've read, but Spark has a lot in common with Shirley Jackson: a keen ear for dialogue that on the surface says little, but reads volumes, a building aura of foreboding, and a sympathy for the outsider that doesn't exclude them from scrutiny.

'The Girls of Slender Means' is set in a boarding house for single young women in blitzed London in the last years of World War II. The girls make an effort to go about their lives: dating, work, sunning themselves on a hard-to-reach spot on the roof, but a repeated phone call in the future throughout the short novel hints at a disaster on the horizon.

Bitterly funny. ( )

maybe this suffered from having read [b:An Experiment in Love|101926|An Experiment in Love|Hilary Mantel|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312023506s/101926.jpg|98267] immediately prior, but i never felt i had a proper grasp on the book. it's not that it was too complex; it's that it was too slight. i think i get what spark's intention was here - that knowing a person is impossible - but it didn't land for me. ( )

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark is a short novel that showcases the author’s acerbic wit as she writes about a group of young women who are living in London in 1945, shortly after the end of the European war. These girls live in a slightly shabby Edwardian mansion called the May of Teck Club that has been converted to a residence for working girls below the age of 30 who have to live away from home in order to “follow an occupation”.

The author captures their conversations, hopes, aspirations and their pursuit of men as they go about their daily lives. While I can’t say that I loved this story or it’s characters, I did find it very interesting as the clever, elegant tone moves the reader back and forth through time and leads us into ever darker territory.

The Girls of Slender Means paints a vivid picture of a specific time in post-war London but the story definitely reminded me of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with it’s female cast totally zoned into their everyday concerns while history unfolds in the background. As these young women go about their daily lives, they are far more involved in their love affairs, gossip and in the sharing of a designer evening gown than in the politics of the day. The ending of the story which seemed like a play on the title word of “slender” was definitely unsettling and memorable. I listened to an audio version of this book as read by Juliet Stevenson who, once again, did a stellar job. ( )

The Girls of Slender Means is a novel of taut perfection – a wonderful precursor to A Far Cry from Kensington. Told in flash back from the present (1963) looking back at the summer of 1945, and those months between VE day and VJ day. The London streets are scarred by bomb damage and rationing bites those who have put up with it so long already.

“The May of Teck Club exists for the pecuniary convenience of and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means, below the age of Thirty years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London.”

The May of Teck Club has had its windows shattered three times since 1940. It is a hostel for young ladies under thirty. Spark herself lived in a very similar establishment, and she recreates the community perfectly. That atmosphere of everyone being in it together – endless chatter, borrowing and swapping belongings, young men visiting, careers just beginning. The upper floors look down over Kensington gardens, the Albert Memorial just around the corner, it’s a rather nice area of London to be residing in, even in 1945.

“Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up and up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind’s eye. All the nice people were poor; at least that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit”

Despite being over fifty, three middle aged spinsters have been allowed to stay at the club since before the First World War, and though one of them insists that one of the bombs that dropped into the garden of the May of Teck Club is still there, no one listens. These three older women hold something of a privileged position at the Club and are generally tolerated by the younger women.

The younger women are an interesting mix, there is Jane Wright, an overweight young woman who requires extra food for her brain work. Some of this work is writing letters to famous writers, on behalf of Rudi Bittesch – who Jane thoroughly dislikes. During the day Jane works in publishing. Joanna Childe gives elocution lessons from her room, her beautiful voice ringing out through the house. ‘Mad’ Pauline Fox frequently goes out to dinner with her imaginary companion; well-known actor Jack Buchanan. Beautiful, Selina Redwood, who daily recites an incantation to maintain her well-practised poise. Dorothy Markham is the impoverished niece of Lady Julia Markham, who is a member of the club’s management committee. Then there is the worldly Anne, who owns the coveted taffeta Schiaparelli dress. The dress is shared between the girls slender enough to wear it, swapped for little pieces of soap or coupons.

In the back ground of all this there is a sense of darker goings on, largely ignored by those girls of slender means, but nevertheless there. The reality of war is everywhere, in the landscape all around and the coupons they trade for the right to wear the Schiaparelli dress. Whispers of another great bomb being prepared, remind us that the world was on the brink of frightening great change.

It is important to be very slim at the May of Teck Club, not only so girls can fit into the Schiaparelli dress, but because girls who are slender enough are able to squeeze through the lavatory window to the flat roof. Here girls can sunbathe unseen or meet lovers who climb over from the building next door.

Selina is quite the expert in getting through that window, while Jane of course can only stand and watch. This ability, or not to get through the tiny aperture of the window to the roof beyond becomes very important as the novel progresses.
Into this all female world that runs smoothly enough, comes Nicholas Farringdon an aspiring writer to unwittingly unsettle the status quo.

“We come now to Nicholas Farringdon in his thirty-third year. He was said to be an anarchist. No one at the May of Teck Club took this seriously as he looked quite normal; that is to say, he looked slightly dissipated, like the disappointing son of a good English family that he was.”

As the novel opens in the present time of 1963, former residents of the May of Teck Club pass along the news of Nicholas’s death in Haiti where he had worked as a missionary. In those former days he had made great friends of several of the young women from the May of Teck Club, and becomes a regular visitor. He decides he would like to do nice things for Jane (though not sleep with her) he takes her to parties and poetry readings, introducing her to other writers, but it is Selina who really turns his head. Many hot summer nights are spent with Selina out on the roof of the May of Teck Club.

Nothing lasts forever, and the days of the May of Teck Club are sadly numbered. In typical Spark fashion the conclusion of the novel is shockingly dramatic. The Girls of Slender Means is a slight novel, in which not a word is wasted – Spark re-creates the atmosphere of a hostel for young ladies, in 1945 with absolute perfection. Who wouldn’t want to be one of the nice poor people in 1945 who live at the May of Teck Club across the road from Kensington Gardens and have a share in a taffeta Schiaparelli dress.

I persuaded my very small book group to join in #ReadingMuriel2018 and pick this for our March read. We meet on Wednesday to discuss it. ( )

This is probably Spark's best-known book after The prime of Miss Jean Brodie. And - of course - it turns out not to be quite what we would expect. Just about any other writer, inspired to write a book about a period she'd spent 20 years ago living in a hostel for young women, would have come up with - and many of them did! - a light, nostalgic, romantic comedy, essentially a boarding-school story spiced up with a bit of grown-up sexual jealousy, in which the heroine falls for the wrong man but realises just in time and marries the quiet one instead. But not Muriel Spark. She somehow manages to turn this unpromising material into a formally and linguistically experimental novel-of-ideas which is at the same time a satire of experimental novels-of-ideas...

As usual in a Muriel Spark novel, you find that your sympathy is being bound to characters who later turn out not to be sympathetic at all (tip: nobody comes out of this story well), the narrator is constantly butting in with opinions that contradict or undermine your preconceptions, and everyone criticises everyone else. Two parallel lines of narrative from different time periods switch places without warning, and apparently random overheard fragments of Great Poetry (recited by the offstage Joanna, training to be an elocution teacher) act as an ironic commentary on everything else (or possibly vice-versa...).

But it is also a wonderful comic novel about growing up, about rationing and shortages and youthful poverty, about being hungry but afraid of getting fat, about sex and religion and literary and political posing, about beauty and whether it matters, and many other things that you couldn't imagine would fit into such a slender book. Endless fun!

Just a few random bits of Sparkery about poetry:
Joanna Childe had been drawn to this profession by her good voice and love of poetry which she loved rather as it might be assumed a cat loves birds; poetry, especially the declamatory sort, excited and possessed her; she would pounce on the stuff, play with it quivering in her mind, and when she had got it by heart, she spoke it forth with devouring relish.
...she wrote poetry of a strictly non-rational order, in which occurred, in about the proportion of cherries in a cherry-cake, certain words that she described as ‘of a smouldering nature’, such as loins and lovers, the root, the rose, the seawrack and the shroud.
...he took Jane to a party to meet the people she longed to meet, young male poets in corduroy trousers and young female poets with waist-length hair, or at least females who typed the poetry and slept with the poets, it was nearly the same thing. ( )

“You don't know what it's like trying to eat enough to live on and at the same time avoid fats and carbohydrates.”

This novel, as the title would suggest, is about a group of girls living in London in the spring of 1945, in a converted Edwardian mansion known as the May of Teck Club for "Ladies of Slender Means". With the exception of three old spinsters all the occupants of the May of Teck Club are under 30, all have moved away from their families to take up jobs in London during the War and enjoying the freedom that this entails. The building itself is showing its age and although the girls occasionally refer to it as a "hostel" they generally liked liked living there because this is somewhere that they can entertain their men friends in the hope of getting a suitable marriage proposal. During the War a bomb landed but did not explode in the Club's garden and according to one of the ageing spinsters who had been there at the time another one also lay unexploded and missed by the bomb disposal teams. This is a time shortages when the girls squabbled but also bartered chocolate for soap and shared one evening dress among them.

The main action takes place during this period but the author is very fluid with her time line and regularly flits forward to the present when the girls have long since dispersed after its violent culmination. Time mat have dimmed the memories of those who were present but news of the execution of a young male visitor,Nicholas Farringdon, whilst on missionary work in Haiti brings back stark memories.

Jane Martin, one of the former residents and now working as a columnist, breaks the news of Nicholas Farringdon's death in the hope of capitalizing on the story. Back in 1945 Farringdon had submitted a manuscript to a publisher that Jane was working for at the time but it was never published. Back in 1945 Jane had befriended Nicholas but he was only interested in Selina Redwood, the Club's reigning beauty at the time. It is the after effects of Selina's treatment of him as well as what he witnessed that ultimately starts him on his path to his unfortunate fate.

However, Farringdon's death only really gives the story's meaning. Ultimately. it is the girls and their escapades, especially their pursuit of various men, that are the main focus for the story. In particular, Joanna Childe, the daughter of a country rector who knew the psalms off by heart and recited poetry as part of the elocution lessons she gave in her spare time. She is the most admired but the least well known of the girls yet she will rise to be most remembered of them all.

On the whole I found this well written but some the abrupt shifts in tense were a little confusing at times and I struggled to see the relevance of many of the verses Spark quotes throughout. However, it is really only a novella. This has the effect that the 'Slender' of the title seemingly has three very differing meanings. Not only are the girls relatively poor but also it is only the thinner girls who easily escape the demise of the girls and obviously the story itself is relatively brief. If you have not read Muriel Spark's works before then this is as good a place as any to start. ( )

All hail Spark for her inimitable style, unique characterisations, and ability to wrap universal themes in seemingly light-hearted anecdotes of everyday life. The way she seems to be just slapdashing random broad strokes together to create a character and midstroke deciding to introduce another and another and another, then you step back and realise that she has created this incredibly detailed tableau of personalities of postwar London women (of slender means).

Aside: The climax in this book is particularly incredible, with Chekhov's gun firing off all over the place and everything coming together like an very well-directed play. ( )

Dated humor, misogynistic tone. I feel like Sparks was smart enough to make a name for herself before feminism, but she chiefly did this by lampooning her own gender. ( )

This is a short, pithy novel mainly set during 1945. It mainly feels quite light and fun, as the young women of the title variously dine, date and gossip. Of course, it's all building up to a central tragedy but even this is comical as well as dramatic. It's beautifully written with some lovely passages. Definitely keen to read more by her now. ( )

A nice little book.
Interesting to read about the period so short after WWII. Despite English is not my native language, I still feel a bit of humor or exaggeration here and there.
A bunch of girls and women living together is always ibteresting: different characters, attitudes, interests. When additionally there's men involved... The interactions get even more interesting, without being explicit or vulgar. ( )

Can't say much without giving away a good bit about it. Was good, but not quite Jean Brodie level, but that's okay. Spark's writing is just mesmerising. ( )

Can't say much without giving away a good bit about it. Was good, but not quite Jean Brodie level, but that's okay. Spark's writing is just mesmerising. ( )

Don't look for plot in this Spark that nevertheless sparkles with suppressed lust and outright gusto. Gives us a glimpse of what we might have seen a group of people trying to survive between VE and VJ day in 1945 go through on a typical day. ( )