Arts preview of 2018: Allan Massie on the year ahead in books
Unquestionably the highlight of the coming year is Polygon’s new edition of Muriel Spark’s novels, all 22 of them. Very few novelists today get a Complete Novels edition, though this used to be common. You might say of course that few novelists merit one. Polygon have also commissioned introductory essays for each novel. I’ll be very interested to read what Ian Rankin has to say about The Hothouse By The East River, one of Spark’s most puzzling, if also brilliant, novels. It somewhat flummoxed me when I wrote a critical study of her novels almost 40 years ago.