722
EDZIA WEISBERG
In some very general sense, apart from their sharing in .the
Catholic faith,_ Miss Spark seems to have been influenced by
Evelyn Waugh, but her literary method is almost the . exact op·
posite of his, for where he explodes into wild satire she compresses
into minute and painful comedy. But this difference in response
is exacted by the same world, that world which in
The Bachelors
seems the ultimate
in
sterility of human purpose. Concerning this
condition of life Miss Spark has some firm ideas. The main
figure of the book, Ronald Bridges, who is an epileptic hand–
writing expert, (both his affliction and his skill seem meant to
be
suggestive) remarks at a crucial point: "There are only two
religions, the spiritualist and the Catholic." He means this, he
adds, "in a figurative sense." Now
in
the economy of the book
Ronald stands for the restraint and steadfastness in the face of
suffering that Catholicism allows, while the medium Patrick Seaton
represents the diabolic receptivity to seizure and indulgence that
spiritualism encourages. It is a contrast between grace and
roo
manticism; but a contrast which, if the book invites us to see it in
terms of doctrine, we are not forced to accept in order to see the
book.
Edzia Weisberg
I
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a
copy
of my novel
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•
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