Jul 24, 2008
The Abbess of Crewe | The Abbess of Crewe
At a glance:
- Author: Muriel Sarah Camberg
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Political satire and roman a clef
- Time of Work: The early 1970’s
- Setting: Crewe, England, about thirty miles south of Manchester
- Principal Characters: Alexandra, Sister Felicity, Sister Walburga, Sister Mildred, Sister Winiprede, Sister Gertrude
- Genres: Long fiction, Satire, Political fiction, Roman à clef
- Subjects: 1970’s, Power, personal or social, England or English people, Blackmail, Rulers, Ethics, Catholics or Catholic Church, Monasteries, monks, or monasticism, Convents or nunneries, Nuns, Jesuits
- Locales: England
The Novel
The Abbess of Crewe satirizes politics in the United States as well as most of the
principals and details of the Watergate affair (which eventually caused President Richard M. Nixon
to resign, following a congressional committee’s vote for impeachment), humorously criticizes
shortcomings in human nature and in the Catholic Church, and enunciates many of Muriel
Spark’s favorite themes.
Using the present tense of her later novels but the narrative looping she has employed from her
first works onward, Spark opens in chapter I with events far advanced...
[The entire page is 2548 words long]
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