Symposium (novel)
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AuthorMuriel Spark
CoverartistSusan Sluglett
LanguageEnglish
PublisherConstable (UK)
Houghton Mifflin (US)
Houghton Mifflin (US)
 First edition | |
| Author | Muriel Spark |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Susan Sluglett |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Constable (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US) |
Publication date | 1990 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print & Audio |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 0-09-469660-8 |
Symposium is a novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark, published in 1990. John Mortimer, writing in The Sunday Times, regarded it as one of the best novels of that year.[1]
It is the story of a dinner party and the events leading up to it involving the lives of the five couples attending:
- Hurley Reed (an American painter) and Chris Donovan (a rich Australian widow), the party hosts
- Lord and Lady Suzy, who have recently been burgled
- Ernst and Ella Untzinger, an EU commissioner and his wife, a teacher
- Margaret and William Damien, newlyweds just returned from a honeymoon in Venice
- Annabel Treece and Roland Sykes, a TV producer and genealogist, cousins
The story includes many flashbacks into the lives of the guests including a convent of Marxist nuns, a burglary ring preying on the guests, a mad Scottish uncle and several unexplained deaths. The dinner party itself ends with the murder of the mother of one of the guests.