The Driver’s Seat
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark is a taut psychological thriller published by Penguin Books in 2006. This edition, part of the Penguin Modern Classics series, spans 106 pages and is presented in English. The narrative follows Lise, who, feeling trapped after sixteen years in the same accountants’ office, embarks on a transformative journey abroad. As she adopts a new, flamboyant persona in search of adventure, her quest for excitement leads her down a darker path toward self-destruction.
Readers will find a complex exploration of identity and fate as Lise’s last day unfolds in an unnamed southern city. The story delves into themes of psychological tension and the consequences of one’s choices, reflecting Spark’s literary prowess. This edition also includes an introduction by John Lanchester, providing additional context to Spark’s work and its significance within the literary canon.
Official synopsis Publisher
Described as ‘a metaphysical shocker’ at the time of its release, Muriel Sparks’ The Driver’s Seat is a taut psychological thriller, published with an introduction by John Lanchester in Penguin Modern Classics.
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 new experiences 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. One of six novels to be nominated for a ‘Lost Man Booker Prize’, The Driver’s Seat was adapted into a 1974 film, Identikit, starring Elizabeth Taylor.
Muriel Spark (1918 – 2006) wrote poetry, stories, and biographies as well as a remarkable series of novels, including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) which received the James Tait Black Prize, and The Public Image (1968) and Loitering with Intent (1981), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Spark was awarded the T.S. Eliot Award for poetry in 1992, and the David Cohen Prize for literature in 1997.
If you enjoyed The Driver’s Seat, you might like Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
‘An extraordinary tour de force, a crime story turned inside out’
David Lodge
‘Her spiny and treacherous masterpiece’
New Yorker
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