The Girls of Slender Means Audiobook By Muriel Spark cover art

The Girls of Slender Means

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Girls of Slender Means

By: Muriel Spark
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $9.89

Buy for $9.89

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."

Thus begins Muriel Spark's tragic and rapier-witted portrait of a London ladies' hostel just emerging from the shadow of World War II. Like the May of Teck Club building itself - "three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit" - its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal, practicing elocution and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown.

But the novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds.

©1963 Muriel Spark (P)2008 Blackstone Audio
Classics Fiction Literary Fiction World War II England Funny Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Spark, as usual, has perfectly plotted and peopled this giddy world of postwar delirium and girls' dormitory life." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about The Girls of Slender Means

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    100
  • 4 Stars
    77
  • 3 Stars
    40
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    122
  • 4 Stars
    45
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    83
  • 4 Stars
    64
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    15
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, moving, brilliant

Somehow, "The Girls of Slender Means" manages to be simultaneously: an often hilariously funny social satire (particularly of the publishing business); an amazingly realistic account of the deprivations of post-war England; and a deeply moving character study of the conflict between innocence and soulless evil. In some ways it's a "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" with twenty-somethings instead of younger girls, and it's a good bet that if you have read and enjoyed that book you'll like this one. Nadia May is as always a fine interpreter of Muriel Spark, with fine pacing and a deft hand at conveying Spark's dry irony.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Spark in the Dark

Muriel Spark lends her dry, wry voice to this peculiar group portrait of a generation scrambling to make sense of the aftermath of war. Funny until it's tragic, and then funny again, and often both at once.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Optimistic Narration

Fascinating story of a different world and a different time, long before Women’s lib and gender equality. Yet these ‘impoverished’ posh girls lived their lives to the full with great spirit and good humor. The narrator of this absorbing tale speaks the way one imagines the girls themselves would speak. The only problem is that moments of great tragedy or even irony are relayed in the same optimistic Blue Peter voice as the rest of the narrative, giving one a sense of disorientation. But don’t let this put you off; it’s a great ‘read.’

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Subtle humor

I did enjoy the subtle, British humor in this short novel, but the narrative was quite choppy, and the narration seemed to have pauses that interrupted the flow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator and weave of storyline

Loved this narrator English and great diction and vivacity. I also enjoyed the way the story moved around in timeline…a wonderful job capturing the Womens hostel with all its girls during war time. Clever.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Perfect for Nostalgia

This book reflects a period in Britain when I was born. mM mother lived in Queen Alexandra's House, which I am almost sure is the model for the May of Teck Club. A perfect piece of reading for a specific moment in time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sublime

Perfect narration. And Spark? Chilly and comforting at the same time. A mistress of chance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

please please try again

I love this book; I think it would make a smashing movie. The imagery is breathtaking, the dialogue perfectly tuned.
Only imagine if this book had had the right reader: the amazing reverberating Welsh voice of the parson's daughter, the avidity of the journalist, and all the rest; coming to life as they did in Ms. Spark's imagination.
Wanda McCaddon is not up to it.
Her thin, undifferentiated voice expressed none of the hope, passion, and tragedy of the story.
Her intonations should be reserved for the static, the domestic, and the placid in literature.
Please, Audible, try this one again!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful