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  • Loitering with Intent

  • By: Muriel Spark
  • Narrated by: Nadia May
  • Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (19 ratings)

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Loitering with Intent cover art

Loitering with Intent

By: Muriel Spark
Narrated by: Nadia May
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Publisher's Summary

"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world", as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance, or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.

But when its pompous director, Sir Quentin, steals the manuscript of Fleur's new novel, fiction begins to appropriate life. The association's members begin to act out scenes exactly as Fleur herself had already written them in her missing manuscript. And as they meet darkly funny, pre-visioned fates, where does art start or reality end?

©1981 Copyright Administration, Ltd. (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"I read this book in a delirium of delight. In Loitering with Intent, Miss Spark returns to the early flawless form of Memento Mori and The Comforters....Robust and full-bodied, a wise and mature work, and a brilliantly mischievous one." (The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about Loitering with Intent

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting novel with a memorable narrative voice

At times very funny. The plot is not as interesting as the moments of wry humour created by a very dry narrator. Worth the listen.

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ripping good yarn

Quirky characters, plenty of humour, good plot, well read . Sad to end it. will look for other books written by Muriel Sparks

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