Sunday book pick: How not to write a novel in Muriel Spark’s final book, ‘The Finishing School’

“According to the catechism of the Roman Catholic faith, into which Rowland had been born, six sins against the Holy Spirit are specified. The fourth is ‘Envy of Another’s Spiritual Good’, and that was the sin from which Rowland suffered.”

Muriel Spark’s twenty-second and final novel, The Finishing School, was published in 2004. She died two years later. It opens with a lesson on how to write fiction: “You begin by setting your scene.” The lesson is being imparted by Rowland to his creative writing class at College Sunrise, a mobile finishing school stationed that year at Ouchy near Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Rowland runs the school jointly with Nina, his wife. At 29 and 26 years old, respectively, they’ve figured out that there is no better way to make money than by promising the rich an even better lifestyle for their children. By charging exorbitant fees and guaranteeing exclusivity, the young couple’s institution becomes much coveted by Europe’s wealthiest.

A pestilent pupil

Money and social status make the bunch of 17-year-old pupils consider themselves wiser than their years. Sexual tensions run deep (including instances of inappropriate age-gap relationships) and the youngsters take themselves too seriously, often wrongly judging the scope of their talents. The class, among others,...

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