The Comforters

The Comforters is the first novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark, it drew on her own experiences as a recent convert to Catholicism and a three-month period when she suffered hallucinations whilst taking the appetite suppressant Dexedrine. Although completed in late 1955 it was not published until 1957, a mutual friend novelist Alan Barnsley having sent the proof's to Evelyn Waugh who was at the time writing The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold which also dealt with drug-induced hallucinations he had experienced. Waugh's and others positive responses prompted Macmillan to publish the novel in February 1957. The novel was an immediate success and enabled Muriel Spark to give up editorial work and devote herself to full-time creative writing.^[1][2]

Plot Introduction

The central character is Caroline Rose, a novelist recently converted to Catholicism who on returning from a retreat starts hearing voices and the sound of a typewriter. The words she heard appearing to coincide exactly with her own thoughts. Meanwhile her boyfriend Lawrence has been staying with his grandmother in Sussex and discovers she is involved in smuggling...

References

External links

• The typing ghost review by Ali Smith in The Guardian